Ahmedabad: But for these two men, the city would have witnessed communal tension during the high-voltage Gujarat assembly elections in December 2007. AD Bhavsar and his friend Pratish Parekh, both young entrepreneurs, filed RTI applications and forced Election Commission to take note of the ill-intentioned moves and effect changes.
A month before the elections, municipal councillors had issued instructions that the boards of housing societies in various municipal wards and also of individual pols in Ahmedabad be painted saffron and green according to the type of community living in the respective society. Besides, there were banners in every nook and corner of societies in the walled city and northern part of the city announcing ‘Welcome to Hindu Rashtra’ with symbols of a particular political party.
Fearing another round of communal tension during the elections, both Parekh and Bhavsar filed RTIs to know the reason behind the sudden decision to paint society boards. They sought details of the budget earmarked for the purpose and file noting of officers responsible for the decision. They also demanded the money spent by individual councillors on preparing banners.
“In case of Hindu Rashtra banners, we took their photographs and filed RTI pleas to know which election officers were responsible for allowing such sensitive banners to come up in the city,” says Bhavsar.
Within minutes, the banners were removed and the officers concerned were issued show-cause notices. “The fact is that any sort of show-cause notice is a dent in the annual confidential reports (ACR) of officers, the progress report card for them. Filing RTIs makes such things official,” says Bhavsar.
In another RTI, the duo wanted to know whether brandishing sharp weapons by politicians at election meetings was legal in reference to the Arms Act. “Generally it is considered unlawful to carry sharp weapons in public according to the Act. I was curious to know whether the same applies to politicians. I had also heard arrest of citizens caught with weapons at cultural events,” says Bhavsar.
In some of the later RTI applications, Parekh wanted to know from CID (crime) whether they had details of female infanticide as the Gujarat government was claiming that cases were being filed against errant doctors. “The CID (crime) had no such details. For the first time, the agency had to record these crimes,” says Parekh.
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