Newsd: National: Friday, July 06, 2018.
On 19th June
2018 RTI activist Rajendra Singh was shot dead in Motihari town, Bihar. He had
exposed discrepancies in the functioning of an LIC office, irregularities in
the recruitment of teachers and police personnel, and misuse of funds under the
Indira Awas Yojana housing project. After all these fights for transparency, he
had to pay back for his honesty. Government authorities ignored his request of
providing security as he survived three murder attempts in the past. This yet
again raises the question on intentions of Government both at the centre and
state to safeguard the watchdog of Indian democracy.
The Nation
Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) had urged Bihar’s Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar to effectively implement Whistleblower’s Protection Act
to protect lives of RTI activists. In last three months, Bihar alone has
witnessed three murders of RTI activists in districts of Vaishali, Jamui and
Motihari.
No
centralisied data on pending RTI application, says MoS Jitendra Singh
WHISTLEBLOWERS
(AMENDMENTS) BILL: Corruption has been an issue of all seasons for our country.
The Right to Information (RTI) activists have been playing a vital role as a
spine in world’s largest democracy increasing the accountability of an elected
government. In 2015, the Whistle Blower’s Protection Act (WBP Act) made rounds
of the parliament but just as an amendment bill and not as an operational
act/law that too with severe dilutions. The government added 10 exemptions to
the bill.
This bill was
framed without any public consultation with the civil society or RTI activists.
Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri in an article via The Hindu wrote, “The
amendment Bill seeks to remove immunity provided to whistle-blowers from
prosecution under the draconian Official Secrets Act (OSA) for disclosures made
under the WBP law. Offences under the OSA are punishable by imprisonment of up
to 14 years. The threat of such stringent penalties would deter even genuine
whistle-blowers. The basic purpose of the WBP Act is to encourage people to
report wrongdoing. If whistle-blowers are prosecuted for disclosing information
as part of their complaints and not granted immunity from the OSA, the very
purpose of the law would be defeated.”
In 2016, a
Supreme Court bench of Justice T.S.Thakur and Justice A.K.Sikri said there was
“absolute ‘vacuum’ which could not be allowed to go on.” “Take a firm stand on
the time frame within which you will bring administrative set-up to protect
whistleblowers. This is part of the evolution of the system to meet the need of
people. The concept of a whistleblower is a global phenomenon and has become a
reality. They will be there and the government cannot wish it away”. This was a
diktat to Modi government’s reluctance towards WBP bill.
Many
countries of the world have kept no exemptions when it comes to whistleblowing
but Modi government made restrictions by adding exemptions making the bill a
toothless tiger. A report released by an Australian non-government organization
‘Blueprint’ for Free Speech, Transparency International Australia, Griffith
University and Melbourne University rates India as one of the countries that do
“the least to ensure that whistleblowers can speak out without fear of
retribution.
Bihar,
Maharashtra among top five states to receive most complaints under RTI
THE
UNPROTECTED CRUSADERS OF CORRUPTION- The RTI activists fight for their rights
and/or those of others, but they are hardly protected by the police and
judiciary. According to a report of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
since 2006, 422 RTI activists have undergone attacks which includes-
Murder- 73
Physical
assault- 166
Threatening-
183
In 2018
alone, nationwide 7 RTI activists lost their lives. Cases have been filed for
only 137 murders, assaults and harassment (out of 369). No action was taken in
141 cases. (No information is available on the status of 91 cases). Despite the
action, the conviction rate remains very low. The state remains in fear to get
exposed to corrupt deeds where its leaders and ministers are involved. The
number of RTI applications continues to grow. The RTI activists not only expose
corrupt practices and crimes, besides provide an alternative leadership at the
local level just like Rajendra Singh of Motihari. In fact, some of the most dedicated RTI
activists are journalists and the reason why small-town journalists are
harassed, assaulted and murdered are similar to those affecting the RTI
activists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Indian
branch of the International Federation of Journalists, the number of
journalists who have been assassinated has risen from 2 in 2014 to 6 in 2016
and, according to the CPJ website “In the 27 cases of journalists murdered for
their work in India since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, there have been no
convictions”.
Biased,
frivolous, and spineless: the state of Indian media
A total of
1.275 crores RTI applications have been made to state and central governments
between 2005-2015. With such a giant figure of increasing queries against
corruption and bad governance of elected government, the question we should
ask-
Is our
democracy not responsible to save these crusaders of corruption?
RTI
activist’s work is revealing the character of corruption in India today and
impunity to miscreants, corrupt elements through a weak law has created the
conditions of more violence against the RTI activists. The so-called slogan of
‘Naa Khaaunga-Naa Khaane Doonga’ by Prime Minister Modi is meaningless until
and unless the Whistleblowers Protection Act becomes a genuine shield for all
those whose are determined to expose and fight corruption. Hope this monsoon
session the WBP act strengthened by eliminating amendments which are a threat
to whistleblowers and is taken with utmost seriousness. Words of Nobel laureate
Czestaw Mitosz fit best to this fight against corruption- “In a room where
people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds
like a pistol shot.”