COUNTERVIEW: Ahmedabad: Monday, March 12, 2018.
With the
gruesome murder of yet another Right to
Information ((RTI) activist, Nanjibhai Sondarva (35), on March 9, 2018, a
resident of Manekwada village in Kotada Sangani taluka of Rajkot district, the
number of citizens and activists hacked to death for using RTI in Gujarat has
risen to 11.
Bringing this
to light, well-known RTI activist of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative,
Venkatesh Nayak, has said, this is over and above at least 16 cases of assault
on other RTI activists in Gujarat reported by various media sources since
October 2005 when the RTI Act was operationalised.
Clubbed to
death by six persons, Sondarva's father has claimed that the attack occurred
soon after Nanjibhai filed an RTI application demanding transparency about
funds spent on the construction of a road in his village.
According to
Nayak, this was not the first time Nanjibhai had been attacked. He and other
members of his family were assaulted one and a half years ago, by the village
Sarpanch who was said to be furious at Nanjibhai for using RTI to expose
financial irregularities in the developmental works undertaken in the village.
Meghabhai,
Nanjibhai's father, has named the Sarpanch in the complaint submitted to the
local police regarding the latest incident, says Nayak, adding, with this
latest incident, the total number of victims, allegedly murdered for seeking
information under RTI, across the country has gone up to 67.
Significantly,
Nayak notes, the attack occurred three months after the National Human Human
Rights Commsiion (NHRC) directive to the Gujarat Government to protect RTI
activists.
Calling the
latest attack a reflection of the Gujarat model, he adds, in October, 2015, a
day before the Central Information Commission organised a National Convention
to celebrate 10 years of the RTI Act and which was inaugurated by the Prime
Minister, another 30-year old RTI activist- Ratansinh Chaudhary was murdered
for exposing financial irregularities through RTI in Banaskantha.
Pointing out
that this prompting him to file a complaint with the NHRC, which took
cognizance of it and followed up on this case for two years, Nayak said, in
December 2017, while closing the case upon being satisfied that the police had
acted in accordance with the law by sending the murder case up for trial, NHRC
issued a directive to the Government of Gujarat.
The directive
was, (1) that the family of the Late Ratansinh Chaudhary be provided security;
and (2) the Government must ensure freedom of expression of RTI activists and
HRDs (human rights defenders) and give them necessary protection as per law.
As the letter
was addressed only to the District Superintendent of Police, Banaskantha, Nayak
said, he alerted the NHRC's Focal Point for HRDs about the urgent necessity of
sending a similar letter to the State Government, as the DSP, Banaskantha,
would not be able to do much about ensuring security for RTI activists outside
his jurisdiction.
While the HRD
Focal Point promised to look into this discrepancy in the final action of the
NHRC, the letter has still not reached the state, and another murderous attack
has occurred in Gujarat.
.JPG)
.JPG)
