Moneylife: Pune: Thursday, 26 September 2013.
The Parliamentary Committee has sought citizens’
suggestions on the RTI Amendment Bill, 2013. However, there seems to be a
deliberate attempt by government to restrict responses to Hindi and English
languages, thus depriving half of the population a chance to file their
suggestions and objections
The latest two ordinances one to protect Lalu
Prasad Yadav from his mega fodder scam and the other to scuttle Supreme Court’s
judgment on banning politicians who are convicted of a crime to contest has
further angered people of the brazenness with which these netas are indulging
in lawlessness.
The Right to Information (RTI) Amendment Bill,
2013 which aims to keep political parties out of the RTI ambit was also meant
to be passed quickly in the Parliament as the netas would have liked it to be,
met a hurdle thanks to a vociferous nation-wide campaign by RTI activists and
citizens. The Bill was sent to a Parliamentary Committee.
Shantaram Naik, who heads the Committee, has
called for opinions and suggestions from citizens and organizations, through an
advertisement on 21 September. The suggestions could be sent by post within 15
days of the release of the advertisement, which is 6 October, or in person. The
Committee will ask those citizens, organizations and stakeholders who would
like to orally put forth their say, to be present personally at a particular
date.
However, after the Parliament has bowed down to
citizen pressure and sent the amendment bill to a Parliamentary Standing
Committee, there seems to be an attempt to get ‘poor’ response. Also, there
seems to be confusion on the connotation of transparency for a political party.
In order that individuals do not send meaningless suggestions, various RTI
organizations are working towards making a well-studied draft. Aruna Roy, one
of the pioneers of the RTI Act, who has steered this campaign is holding a
meeting of members of National Campaign for People's Right to Information
(NCPRI) to draft the suggestions tomorrow and will release it.
The other serious concern is that the
Parliamentary Standing Committee has curiously asked citizens, through its
advertisement, to “send your comments by email or by post (two copies must be
sent) only in English or Hindi.’’
Venkatesh Nayak, who has picked up cudgels for the
people on this campaign through Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
vehemently, states this has been deliberately done to limit the number of
suggestions. He said, “The Constitution gives official recognition to 21
languages other than Hindi in the Eighth Schedule. The number of persons
speaking languages other than Hindi easily outnumbers people who are primarily
Hindi-speakers. According to the 2001 Census data only 41% of the citizens in
India speak Hindi. A little more than 10% of the citizenry is familiar with
English as a primary or secondary language. These statistics imply, close to
one half of the population will be prevented from making submissions on the RTI
Amendment Bill merely because of the language barrier.’’
Also, advertisements calling for these suggestions
have also been restricted to these two languages only. Nayak argues that if
public consultation on this issue is to be genuine and effective, then,
“advertisements for submissions on the RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2013 must be
published in the leading newspapers of all states in the local official
languages; citizens must be informed of their right to submit views and
comments on this Bill in any of the 22 languages recognised in the Eighth
Schedule of the Constitution; translating the advertisement into the 22
official languages and translating back the submissions received from the
people into the English and Hindi for the MPs on the Committee is not a
difficult task for the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. They have a team of
professional translators who provide simultaneous translation of speeches of
members of Parliament (MPs) in every session. These people could be gainfully
employed when Parliament is in recess.’’
Venkatesh
Nayak’s views on limiting suggestions from public
Language
of submissions:
It is most
unfortunate that the Parliamentary Committee vetting the RTI Amendment Bill
permits submissions to be made only in English and Hindi on such an important
issue which affects every citizen of India. There are at least four problems
with this blinkered approach.
First, the
Constitution gives official recognition to 21 languages other than Hindi in the
Eighth Schedule. The number of persons speaking languages other than Hindi
easily outnumbers people who are primarily Hindi-speakers. According to the
2001 Census data only 41% of the citizens in India speak Hindi. A little more
than 10% of the citizenry is familiar with English as a primary or secondary
language. These statistics imply, close to one half of the population will be
prevented from making submissions on the RTI Amendment Bill merely because of
the language barrier.
Second, when
Electronic Voting Machines mention names of candidates in English and the local
official language of the State for the purpose of elections to Parliament, is
there any justification for limiting submissions to the Parliamentary Committee
to two languages only? If languages are important only for the purpose of
electing MPs but not for collecting their views about making or amending laws
to inform these very MPs can India claim to be a true democracy where everybody
has equal space and opportunity for participating in the law-making processes?
Third, many
members of the Parliamentary Committee (see 2nd attachment) are themselves
elected from or live in States where neither Hindi nor English is spoken by a
majority of the citizens. Yet, there is no record in the public domain of any
of these MPs demanding that opportunities be created for their brothers and
sisters to send their comments on such an important issue in the official
language(s) of the State.
Fourth,
Article 350 of the Constitution gives every citizen the right to make
representations to any authority of the Central or State Government in any of
the official languages used at the Central or State level. The Parliamentary
Committee must recognise and honour this important constitutional principle in
the context of making or amending laws and create opportunities for people to
send their comments on the RTI Amendment Bill (3rd attachment) in any of the
languages recognised in the Eighth Schedule.
How can this
inequality of opportunity be remedied?
It is high
time MPs raised the issue of equality of people's access to the Committee's
proceedings in terms of official languages used in India. The Committee has a
constitutional duty to take the following steps to ensure equality of access to
all citizens who wish to submit their opinion about whether political parties
should or should not be covered by the RTI Act:
1)
Advertisements
for submissions on the RTI (Amendment) Bill 2013 must be published in the
leading newspapers of all States in the local official languages;
2)
Citizens
must be informed of their right to submit views and comments on this Bill in
any of the 22 languages recognised in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
3)
The
present time limit of 15 days for sending comments must be extended to at least
30 days to enable people to send their comments in various languages after
holding local level consultations.
4) Translating
the advertisement into the 22 official languages and translating back the
submissions received from the people into the English and Hindi for the MPs on
the Committee is not a difficult task for the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. They
have a team of professional translators who provide simultaneous translation of
speeches of MPs in every Parliament session. These people could be gainfully
employed when Parliament is in recess.
What you can
do to expand the consultation opportunity for all citizens:
I urge you to
SMS the following message to the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee-
Mobile No.: 09422439990
"Please
take all necessary steps to enable people to send their comments on the RTI
Amendment Bill, 2013 in all 22 languages recognised by our Constitution."
This message
is less than 160 characters long. The cost little of sending one SMS from any
part of India, is very less.
Or you may
send a post card, fax, or email with your message to:
The
Chairperson,
Department-related
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and
Justice
Rajya Sabha
Secretariat, #222, 2nd Floor, Parliament House Annexe; New Delhi- 110 001
Email
address: shantharam.naik@sansad.nic.in; Fax: 011-23016784
Or you may
send the SMS or postcards, fax or email to all MPs on the Committee
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