Bid to dilute RTI must be shunned : By Kay Benedict

Free Press Journal‎‎: New Delhi: Friday, May 06, 2016.

Praful Patel is no aam admi. He is an accomplished politician and businessman. Senior NCP leader, former civil aviation minister and now Rajya Sabha MP, Patel, had reportedly declared assets worth Rs.217.9 crore in his affidavit as a candidate from Gondia Lok Sabha constituency in 2014. He was the richest minister in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. And none should grudge that. But, pedigree and affluence should not give anyone the right to deride the lesser mortals.

On April 28, Patel tried to make a case for amendment of the Right to Information Act, in the Rajya Sabha saying that the law is being misused by vested interests, a concern shared by some others as well. However, what surprised everyone was that, in the process, he made an insensitive statement betraying a class bias.

Anybody can buy information under RTI by giving Rs.10, he bewailed expressing concern that government officials were scared of taking decisions fearing that someday, somebody may file an RTI and rake up a controversy.

“Even a chaiwallah (tea-seller) and paanwadis (pan-seller) can ask who made a missile programme or anything on international relations, or secret documents,” Patel lamented as he asked the government if it was “willing to consider amending the Act”. Predictably, there were hushed sneers and sniggers from the Congress members who apparently relished the chaiwallah metaphor with glee.

Patel was, perhaps,  unaware that our  “chaiwallah” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present in the House was  listening to him from an adjacent  seat; a faint but befuddled smile playing on his lips.

Realising his gaffe, an apologetic Patel swiftly clarified that he did not intend to show disrespect or taunt the PM. Much to his relief, the entire House laughed off the faux pas.

Congress member Rajiv Shukla backed Patel saying that some people have become “RTI activist” making it a profession and blackmailing people. Some people have even got cards – “RTI activist” printed, he claimed.

Adding another twist to the RTI tale, Samajwadi Party member Naresh Agarwal found an American hand as he alleged that the transparency law was enacted under “US pressure”.  Is RTI implemented in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka? Agarwal asked as though he was unravelling a big conspiracy, but nobody cared to answer.

As if the government was just waiting for a cue, minister of state in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh promptly assured the MPs that the government will consider amending the Act. “We are concerned that nothing must be done which intimidates or causes unnecessary harassment to any officer,” Singh said.

Is there a covert bid to water down the transparency law? The RTI has played a seminal role in exposing corruption in the corridors of power. It helped unearth scams such as CWG, Adarsh Housing Society and 2 G, to name a few. RTI activists have also helped further environment protection and check unscrupulous exploitation of natural resources by mafias with corporate-politician nexus. A few years back a blind man in a Gujarat village had used RTI to weed out bogus voters and ensure good approach road to his village.

Why on earth are the Americans interested in ushering in transparency and a graft-free India?  Is there any empirical data to buttress the law maker’s claim that chaiwallahs can ferret out information undermining national interests? How many of our national secrets have been compromised so far by the misuse of this Act? Or the attempts to dilute the law due to a fear psychosis, as RTI can be a sword of Damocles for those who have something to hide.

It may be recalled that the sorry state of affairs in Air India had come under the scanner of former CAG Vinod Rai and Prashant Bhushan, senior Supreme Court lawyer and founder member of AAP. While Rai hinted at the role of civil aviation ministry mandarins for the losses suffered by the national carrier, Bhushan had sought a CBI probe into corruption in Air India.

This is not the first time when some MPs tried to get the Act amended. On 9, May 2013, then UPA government aborted a move to amend the game changer law to keep political parties out of its ambit courtesy strong opposition from civil society, NGOs and RTI activists. The critics have been saying that the amendment will defeat the very purpose of the transparency law.

The RTI law came into being on October 12, 2005 and last year the government half-heartedly celebrated its tenth anniversary as the Right to Information Day. An RTI convention was organised. Only three out of the ten invited RTI activists attended this convention while as many as 30 activists protested against the “selective invitation” and subjecting the invitees to IB and security checks which never happened in the past.

An attempt to bring sport bodies under RTI in the wake of match fixing and IPL controversies were also stonewalled by a section of the political class. Over 30,000 RTI queries are pending. Most ministries and departments return the queries citing national security and some other pretexts. The Central Information Commissioner had to intervene to entertain even an innocuous question like the staff strength of the PMO.

Last year Congress president Sonia Gandhi targeted Modi by accusing the government of deliberately trying to dilute the Act, delaying appointment of Lokpal and allowing CIC and CVC to remain headless since for long, but the charges were denied by the government.

Misuse, if any, should be plugged. However, misuse is a lesser evil than slowly killing  this game changer law. If a chaiwallah can become Prime Minister, cannot a chaiwallah raise a question under RTI ? If it takes just ten rupees to right a wrong, what’s wrong with it?