Indian
Express: New Delhi: Saturday, 17 October 2015.
 |
| Prime Minister Narendra Modi |
In his first
comments on the Right to Information Act since the NDA came to power, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi Friday said “transparency” in the government is a
prerequisite for people to have “trust” in the system.
“The process
of accessing information should be transparent, timely and trouble-free.
Delayed information does not help solve the problem but increases it. Timely
information can halt a wrong decision. We will emphasise this,” he said.
Inaugurating
a two-day national convention to mark the completion of 10 years of the
transparency law, Modi called the RTI “an instrument for bringing good
governance”.
In a
22-minute speech, Modi said the government must learn from the RTI applications
that are filed, and reform the system based on the queries. Citing the
e-auctions of coal blocks and spectrum initiated by his government, Modi said
these decisions are so transparent that there would be no scope for using the
RTI.
The PM also
said that while RTI could provide information about a “process” he gave the
example of building a bridge it did not provide information about the quality
of the final “product”. “The attention we pay to the process through the RTI,
we also need as to pay equal attention to the product. That’s when change is
possible,” he said.
“Secrecy
could have been the norm during old times, but I don’t think there is need for
such secrecy now,” he said.
He also
referred to his own state, saying that in Gujarat, he had seen “several
examples of the poorest of poor people using RTI”.
While the BJP
had promised to bring in the RTI it its manifesto for the 1998 Lok Sabha
elections, it was implemented only in 2005 by the UPA government.
Several RTI
activists, led by Aruna Roy, boycotted the inaugural session as many other
activists were not invited for it. The boycott comes amid reports that the
Intelligence Bureau ran background checks on several RTI activists.
Modi said
there was a need to find out why RTIs were filed on specific issues. “To bring
reform, we must change our fundamental behaviour,” he said.
“Even a small
query in an RTI application can force a change in a major policy,” he said,
adding that his Digital India initiative would also lead to transparency.
Modi said RTI
gives people the “right to question the system”, and that is the foundation of
a democracy.
Minister of
Finance and I&B Arun Jaitley, who spoke before Modi, cited the pace at
which the RTI has transformed the system within a decade, leading to effective
governance. “It has transformed us during the last few decades and particularly
in the last decade, from a society that relished in secrecy,” he said.
He said
administrators of the RTI Act have to use their discretion to see whether the
Act is being used for empowerment, to avoid harassment, for the benefit of the
common man or if it being used by for collateral purposes.
He added that
the administrators have to do a balancing act between “strengthening the
exercise of this right and preventing possible abuse in the implementation of
this particular legislation”.
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