The Quint: National: Tuesday, April 24, 2018.
Aruna Roy has
led from the front a two-decade-long struggle that has legitimised your right
to know. In simple words, the Right to Information Act – passed in October 2005
– assured accountability and transparency in the government, virtues pertinent
to a democracy.
In light of
the release of her book The RTI Story: Power to the People, Roy takes us
through the grassroots struggle involving activists, teachers, lawyers,
students and common people that gave birth to a people’s law.
Writers,
teachers, academicians, people, students, the whole gamut joined the
20-year-long struggle to make the Right to Information a reality. It is a
people’s law and that is why I believe the power of the RTI cannot be eroded in
this country. It has become ‘my law’ and not somebody else’s law. And the
campaign and struggle played a crucial role in making it personal and
relatable.
Protests need
to be creative. I’ll give you an example. In Poland, the government made it
compulsory to see these terrible television broadcasts. As a sign of protest,
people began switching the television off during that hour. When they switched
it off, the government forbade anybody to do so.
It was like a
curfew. No one could go out on walks or do anything else. So every house turned
the television on, put it on their windows and made it face the street. Protests
need to be creative. The whole RTI movement had very creative protests. There
were songs, powerful theatre, literature, drama and more.
For starters,
questioning authorities has been legitimised. In many cases, people would never
be allowed into an office and claim what is theirs. There is no backtracking on
this benefit anymore.
Secondly, in
offices where corruption is very obvious, the public information officer now
accepts the flaw in office. And the person charged with corruption comes
running to you. Things have changed, as now there is a whole body of people in
that particular office who are willing to indict the guilty.
Third, it has
become wildly recognised as a tool. From Himachal Pradesh to Manipur to Jammu
and Kashmir, everyone knows about the RTI.
When the tool
develops the mechanism to neutralise, the tool also develops. The public
information officer has now understood how to deny information. Also, the
government that gave us the law tried to amend it in six months. And in terms
of the misuse of the law, which is 0.00001 percent, I am of the firm opinion
that they should be booked under the Indian Penal Code as it is breaking the
law.
In this
country today, fear is what is aiding the government’s existence. Fear and hate
is what the government is building itself on. If there is fear, you can’ talk, you
can’t write a WhatsApp message you wish to, you can’t speak your mind, you
can’t criticise the prime minister and the Cabinet ministers, you can’t have
public spaces for protest, you can’t write anything, and you can’t have a film
that will say something different.
Just like all
these facets that are being attacked, the RTI is also a victim. Therefore, the
fear psychosis of an individual will also creep into the RTI. However, the RTI
Act is probably the only Act that has been fighting this fear psychosis on a
day-to-day basis.
Unfortunately,
in the body of debates on the RTI there is only negativity. Sometimes, I feel
this is a strategy to demoralise the 60-80 lakh annual users of the RTI. That
cynicism is being perpetrated and I’m a little tired of that kind of cynicism.
It needs to
end.
And regarding
the will of the people, I am very impressed that people are fighting everyday
to ask questions for answers they deserve to know. People are continuing to
fight where RTI-related deaths have occurred or where they feel there might be
violence against them. That being said, I am very angry with the government
that perpetuates and maintains this violence against such people.
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