AHMEDABAD:
We lost our dear colleague Rahul Mangaonkar, principal correspondent, exactly one year back. And while we have kept his crusade on Right to Information (RTI) alive in his memory in the pages of
The Times of India, his wife, Twinkle, too has kept the flame of RTI burning.
Twinkle Mangaonkar has been fighting every moment since Rahul’s tragic demise. For her, son Swaraj, Rahul’s brother Utpal and his parents, it has been a tough call. The 365 days gone by have been a test of remembrance and endurance.
After months in despair, Twinkle started taking time out from her busy schedule in a private firm, where she is a finance executive, to engage with a network of 900 RTI activists and users from around the country who contribute to the portal called ‘Hum Janenge’. She is one of the five privileged administrators of this portal — a role that Rahul played diligently till last year.
On weekends, she visits an NGO which holds RTI orientation camps to assist people file RTI applications. This has been an eye-opener for Twinkle who has come face-to-face with problems of commoners and the reluctance of authorities to part with information.
"My problems are far less than what people face in their daily lives. The RTI Act was supposed to make life simpler for people and help them access their fundamental rights. For the last one year I have been just learning about RTI, the Act’s utility, and its potential to engage people in participatory democracy. To be frank I have been studying the interpretation of the Act as the trick lies in how creatively you interpret the clauses in the Act to your advantage to seek information," says Twinkle.
Well, Twinkle is almost speaking like Rahul here. Rahul first came to the TOI as an RTI activist doling out information. He was to soon become our columnist and eventually a full-time staffer who used to guide fellow reporters to gain access to information through the RTI route.
Twinkle today is persuading 900-odd activists and professionals on ‘Hum Janenge’ to pool in their talents to help the less privileged with their expertise in riling RTI applications and guide them to overcome the obstacles. "I today realise the power that RTI holds and what Rahul advocated. I just wish if the heavens too had an RTI Act and I could have asked why they took Rahul away from our lives. But I am determined today to carry Rahul’s legacy forward and with whatever little time I have and I wish to give the most for this noble cause of RTI."
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