Colour-coding a way to defeat the RTI

Monday, Sep 6, 2010 : Mumbai : DNA ;

Trust our bureaucrats to find a way to avoid openness and honesty of purpose. Fearing that their notings on various government files will now be open to public scrutiny through the Right to Information Act, bureaucrats in Andhra are making their notings on Post-It pads and using coloured ink to send coded messages.

The great advantage is that a Post-It can be easily removed without leaving behind any trace should the same file be summoned for public scrutiny. An RTI applicant may thus find it hard to nail a minister or bureaucrat as the latter can always claim the Post-It was meant for some other file.

Another method adopted by bureaucrats is to use different-coloured inks to send across not-so-subtle hints over and above the largely innocuous notings. Thus, a noting in black contains a message that is different from the same words in blue or green or, for that matter, magenta. Next time you see vivid ink colours on government files, do remember the message is in the colour! Alas, that message won’t be known to anyone outside the circle of conspiracy, RTI information commissioners, please note.