Mainstream: National: Tuesday, July 10, 2018.
The RTI
Story: Power to the Peopleby Aruna Roy with the MKSS Collective; Roli Books,
New Delhi; 2018; pp. 424; Rs 495.
The RTI
Story: Power to the People is about one of the most powerful people’s movements
in the late 1980s and 1990s which resulted in the passing of the RTI Act of
2005 giving indians the right to information. The book chronicles the career of
the movement and provides its detailed treatment. The fascinating story needed
to be retold to the new citizens for whom democracy may seem like a gift of the
colonial regime but this story will help them locate their democracy in a more
robust and participatory tradition of popular struggle against inquality and
injustice—the national movement for freedom being the largest and most
powerful. The story brings this democratic heritage of the people alive. Aruna
Roy, in the thirty chapters of the book, has done a great service in presenting
the trials and tribulations that the movement for the RTI Act had gone through.
The book
discusses the history of almost the eighteen long years of struggle, begining
in 1987 in Rajasthan. The movement, which demanded the right to information
from the public offices, initially began with very few people, gradually
brought a large number of people into its ambit and, as the author rightly
says, “Log judte rahe aur karvan badhta gaya.” (p. 324)
The book also
discusses the beginning of the struggle from Devdungri, the struggle for land
at Sohangarh, and the eventual birth of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
(MKSS) which in the later years spearheaded the movement. The first hunger
strike for the cause took place in 1990 followed by the Bhim minimum wages
sammelan which in turn was followed by the second ‘hunger strike’ of 1991.
The book’s
strength is giving us the details of the significant moments of this movement.
The details of the popular mobilisation against many issues quite clearly
exposes many of the myths perpetuated by those who argue for the free and open
market which would, as is claimed, usher in tranparency. In fact it is quite
often the new opaque and sclandalous secrecy in the dealings that people were
protesting against and demanded transparency. The role of the MKSS and public
hearings, and political promises by politicians and accountability played a
crucial part in articulating this demand.
Dharnas and
public hearings were the most influential modes both of protest and
mobilisation and the book provides details of many such dharnas and public
hearings, that is, the Beawar and Jaipur dharnas of 1996, the Rajasthan
divisional dharna, the dharna in Jaipur, 1997. Similarly, the second set of jan
sunwais, the challenge of elections, the public hearing of Umarwas, and
government enquiry endorsing Janwad public hearings constitute the core of the
narrative. The latter events also have been treated with utmost care and
detail. Thus, the post-Janwad and response of the government of Rajasthan, Jan
Niti Abhiyan, the formation of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information
(NCPRI) Act and its Beawar convention of 2001 followed by the discussion on the
coming of the Rajasthan State Act, Freedom of Information Bill, 2000, Second
NCPRI, 2004. The author has also done a great service in bringing out details
of the RTI Law 2005 and the NAC (National Advisory Council) and also the RTI
Amendment, 2006.
The enactment
of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in India in 2005, it was thought, would
strengthen democracy. As the most important foundations of Indian democracy are
in its secular and plural ethos and in many ways the popular struggle for the
Act demonstrated that the ethos lay in people’s coming together for a common
cause. In this sense the RTI Story is also a story of the celebration of
pluralism. It found the government headed by Manmohan Singh a sympathetic one
as it was led by a party, the Congress, which itself is a product of a popular
movement. Thus, one needs to underline the significance of the political
leadership of the Congress at the time in not only hearing the popular voice
but giving the demand the shape of a constitutional frame and abide by it to
the detriment of many of its short-term real political interest. As we saw, the
political Opposition used the same RTI route to attack the government on its
several acts of omission and commission.
The book
discusses how the movement began in Devdungri in 1987 and how in three years a
collective organ, that is, the MKSS, was formed in Rajasthan. Three individuals
from different backgrounds, that is, Aruna Roy, Shankar Singh and Nikhil Dey,
chose to work and live in Devdugri of Rajasthan. One begins to understand and
sympathise with their commitment towards the people when one also hears that
Rajasthan witnessed one of its worst droughts in living memory that very year.
And this makes their commitment a lesson for the younger generation who wish to
be part of any movement for change.
The MKSS
followed the conventional modes of mobilisation. It used pamphlets or parchas
as the mode of communication to disseminate information. The area, rich in
visual forms of communication, also helped them innovate with painting on walls
for communicating messages. In fact, Aruna Roy very significantly points out
that this proved as useful for rural communication as social media in the urban
area today. (p. 37)
One of the
strengths of the MKSS movement was its evocative and powerful coinage of
slogans. The books gives some samples, that is, Nyay samta ho aadhar, Aisa
rachenge hum sansar (We will create a universe with justice and equality). And,
Jab tak bhukha insaan rahega, Dharti par tufaan rahega (as long as people are
hungry, struggles will continue to storm the earth. (p. 38)
The most
crucial issue for the Sangathan was that of bringing transparency in the public
offices at the local and district levels where most of the acts of corruption
affects human livelihood. The Sangathan wanted to provide a possible answer to
this institutional lack of transparency. Through popular struggles around this
issue, it took them finally to realise and stabilise its demand on the firm
legal ground for information-sharing between the public and public offices. It
also brought them closer to a position of a legal guarantee of employment
through the MGNREGA in 2005. Asking for information was an effective method to
establish the right to question, the right to equality and accountability.
But the
system, hitherto used to be enjoying the fruits of the offices by not sharing
information, was not happy at this sudden demand for information. It knew more
than anybody else that information was power, and sharing power would reduce
its control. So, the system always tried to hide information in the name of
secrecy, and corruption took place everywhere.
It is here
that the book’s emphasis on the movements, that is, the stories of different
strikes and the public hearings, underlines the fact that the morale of the
people against the strong resistance of those in the offices were sustained
through these modes only. This gives the story a sense of irony: while people
struggled, got RTI, the access to information through use the RTI for the
public purpose involved the risk, even of losing one’s life, as the system,
which has evolved by using an opaque system of secrecy, would hit back.
Sometimes false cases were filed against them. In fact, in an unequal and
iniquitous society, any demand for equality and participation, when it is
effective, will always be seen as a threat.
RTI soon
becomes, as it is shown, a tool which the poor learnt to use to realise their
fundamental right to demand transparency from a system, known for its refusal to
share information. The story that the book narrates also has another irony. On
one side, the ordinary Indian citizen understands the right to information law.
“A 2016 report said that since 2005, total of 1.75 crore RTI applications have
been filed by users.” (p. xxiii) On the other side is the fact that the lives
of RTI activists and campaigners are at risk. As Gopalakrishna Gandhi mentioned
in the foreword of the book, ‘as many as 60 of them have lost their lives. They
are martyrs to the cause of the good state, of public accountability,
constitutional morality.’ (p. xv)
The RTI
movement, as the book makes it so poignantly clear, has a significance in the
country’s contemporary history. The first sign of this came when the movement
could involve the leading public personalities. In 1996, MKSS decided to go on
an indefinite public protest in Beawar to demand the RTI. Medha Patkar herself
engaged in the movement for rehabilitation of the Narmada dam oustees, Nikhil
Chakravartty, Kuldip Nayar and Ajit Bhattacharjea, the three most senior
journalists and public intellectuals, too were present. Presence of these
personalities and their words of encouragement gave the issue elevated
significance and lent greater dignity to the demands of the poor.
Nikhil
Chakravartty in his speech voiced his intuitive and historical understanding
when he said:
“I feel that
this struggle in which you are involved is historic. This right to information
is historic and extremely significant. Not only for your region or your State
but for the entire country. It will be a huge struggle. That’s why we have come
here from Delhi.” (p. 133)
His words
proved true. The Beawar convention of 2001 laid the foundation of a successful
and appropriate platform for communication on the RTI law. In the National
Campaign for People’s Right to Information Act (NCPRI) Convention, the Chief
Ministers from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Justice Sawant, retired judge of
the Supreme Court of India and the then Chairperson of the Press Council, and
others were present. Justice Sawant addressed at Chang Gate and said: “In a
democracy, the citizen is sovereign and no one can prevent his access to
information.......” (p. 252) He further said: “Information is people’s wealth
and their capital. The Government is just trustee.” (p. 252) Digvijay Singh,
the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, inaugurated the convention on April
5. The inaugural session had Bharat Dogra, Justice Sawant, Prabhash Joshi and
Ajit Bhattacharjea. Digvijay Singh made two important points: ‘Peoples’
representatives should begin their political career as Ministers with taking an
oath to transparency rather than to secrecy.’ He also said, ‘In a democracy
accountability to people cannot be questioned. My power lies in sharing
information.’ (p. 254)
At the 2nd
convention of the NCPRI in 2004 at the University of Delhi what was demanded
was an Act stronger than the present Freedom of Information Act, passed in
2002.
The book
provides photographs related to the movement which enriches the sense of the
collective spirit behind the movement, the photographs of activists involved in
the movement; pictures of meetings, hunger strikes, pamphlets, newspaper
reports, etc. will help us in remembering the important persons and events.
Visual narrativisation is also most often inspirational.
IV
Since the
passing of the Act the movement has motivated people from various facets of
life to fight against corruption. RTI has given a sense of transparency,
accountability, and monitoring of the public office a new sense of urgency and
direction. RTI brought citizens closer to the government as people got
empowered to know about decisions taken by the government and also to ask
questions to the government.
There is a
correlation between the RTI or right to accessing information and people’s
well-being. For example, Amartya Sen famously discusses correlation when he
showed that there has never been a substantial famine in a country with a
democratic form of government and a relatively free press. Inequality of access
to information, he has argued, is a form of poverty.The RTI Act aims at
removing the inequities in the access to information. In doing so it becomes a
powerful tool in the citizen’s effort for a better society.
This RTI
movement has also been intricately connected with the right to work. It is not
a mere coincidence that the government at that point, led by the Indian
National Congress, enacted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (later
on, renamed as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in
the same year. Both access to gainful employment and access to information have
been found to be fundamental to enhancing capabilities.
Amartya Sen
and Martha C. Nassbaum have been arguing in their numerous writings, and the
movement for the RTI by the MKSS has shown in ample measure that enhancement of
capabilities is required as the basic premise of development of the whole
society. What Sen and Nussbaum’s theory lacks is in their posting the agency of
the state in responding to the call for capability-enhancng steps. The Indian
state during 20004-05 was receptive to the demand and implemented it. The story
of the book adds another dimension to it by underlining the fact that even when
the state is receptive and theories of capbility-enhance-ment are known, until
there is a popular mobilisation for demanding those steps, most often things
come to naught. In this sense, therefoe, Sen’s argument that expansion of the
citizens’ capabilities bring human development can also be seen from the prism
of poplar movements which help both citizenship expansion and human
development. Freedom, as Sen has rightly argued, means increasing citizens’
access and opportunities to the things they have reason to value.
Access to
information also, as this book suggests, enhances human dignity by empowering
the common men and women with the citizenship right to equality. Therefore,
while the MGNREGA aimed at giving dignity in providing dignified labour, the
RTI made them dignified citizens.
Conclusion
The RTI Act
has also brought new vitality in the local structure of the government in the
Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in many parts of the country. Similalry,
notwithstanding resistance by the bureaucracy to share senstive information,
people have managed through this right to secure information on many issues
where the public offices did not act in the interest of the people. The RTI
Story: Power to the People will allow all of us to see the how the Act in its
different provisions came about. An extremely accessible scholalry work, the
book also reveals why the author, Aruna Roy, and her colleagues Nikhil Dey,
Shekhar Singh along with her other activist colleagues Anjali Bhardwaj (and
also not to forget Arvind Kejriwal who was a very active member of the RTI
community) and the MKSS, have become synonymous with the movement of the RTI.
The book will
be a definite reference-point for all those concerned with these issues. It
will also help the younger generation to see their own potentiality as well as
the potentiality of common men and women to fight within the system to change
it and transform both policy and administration for the better.