| Issue 20 Vol I, July 31, 2006 | Archive |
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India’s Insidious Babus: Taking Life of Right
to Information Act
A long and arduous struggle for right to information to check inefficiency and corruption, the two most endemic problems that have eaten away most of the development money, several thousand billions of rupees, was waged across the country by civil society groups. Last year, the United Progressive Alliance government was forced to enact Right to Information Act. It was one of the most progressive pieces of legislation and everyone from Congress President Sonia Gandhi to a lowly UPA sympathiser patted each other. Under the original Act, file notings on everything barring defence, security, personal information and commercial information could be accessed. But then who can beat the Indian babus. They were scared of the exposure of their wayward methods of governance and money making techniques. Its very limited use by the public as the information officers or other staff including the appellate tribunals were yet to be completely in place, panicked them. The awareness campaign by the civil society groups and the government was also yet to pick up. Since most positions at the department level, state level and national level were occupied by serving or retired bureaucrats, the public was slightly apprehensive how the law would get implemented. The Act espoused transparency and accountability in the public institutions and hence the people were sure that it would help fight corruption and bring some efficiency. In fact, this was first instrument to reform the bloated, crooked and wasteful bureaucracy that had been eating India like a moth. But those who have enjoyed the iron curtain and kept the public out of even bare minimum information worked hard in a clandestine manner. When the Union Cabinet was approving retrograde amendments to deny access to notings on the files, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was telling the people, "This Act, by promoting transparency, can be a vital instrument for cutting down corruption and ensuring that goals set for improved public service delivery can be met." Without conuslting anyone; the UPA partners, the Left parties and even Mrs Gandhi, the cabinet apporved an mendment that bars file notings to be shown to the public. The government claims that this was being done to encouarge the officials to be bold in their opinions. A former Union Home Secretary, Madhav Godbole begs to differ. In a altter to the President, he warote, “"The decision of GOI to amend the RTI Act is highly retrograde and would totally defeat the very purpose of the Act. In fact, making the notings on the file open to people can be the single most effective check on the rampant corruption both at administrative and political levels. It can also strengthen the hands of officers of honesty and integrity." A concencious Central Information Commissioner O.P. Khejriwal summed it up: "Information minus the file notings amounts to taking the life out of the RTI Act." What escatly are the the file notings and why the government wants to deny any access under this limitid law with already many exceptions that deny the public much of the information. For laypersons the government file is a stuffy compilation of some important papers. Yet as people, even illiterate villagers know the significance and power of the file and the control it has on the destiny of the people. A government file consists of two parts. The right side has the papers under consideration. The left side has the `notings,' the process through which opinions are written down, added to, and approved or disapproved. These notings reflect the deliberations, through a series of comments to arrive at a decision. Most of the discussions on the subject/matter and decisions are recorded on the note sheets. These recordings are generally known as `file notings. From these the public can know who took and why a particular kind of decision or who opposed which decision and why. Contrary to popular view, file notings are not mere scribbles by officers on the margins of any document. The dynamics of a decision making is on file notings. Now the bureaucracy does not want any one to find the trail of responsibility and accountability through file notings. The government is anxious and wants to amend the RTI Act so that file notings relating to most matters remain under wraps. Ordinary citizens shall not have access to the reasons for decisions, many of them irreversible, that affect their lives. Aruna Roy, a winner of the Magsaysay Award for community leadership and Nikhil Dey leader of National Campaign for People's Right to Information and many others are dismayed. She writes, “The paper trail, vital to establish a chain of transparency and accountability, will now be invisible. It will protect the dishonest manipulators but also give no support to honest officers whose forthright views are overruled, who have to suffer the ignominy of being party to a bad decision they disagreed with.” A petition signed by thousands is asking Dr. Manmohan Singh to explain as to how would transparency be promoted by exempting file notings? How would service delivery improve if you protect the identity of guilty officials? One gets a feeling his speeches are mere rhetoric and the Government does not mean what it says. Nine state governments have RTI Acts for the last seven years or more. File notings are being given under those Acts. No bureaucrat in any of these states felt threatened the way bureaucrats working in new delhi feel. What is that secret that they do not wish to share with , “We the People” and why? If they have courage of conviction and give opinions, they should fear none. But behind that iron curetain, there lies the root of misgoverance, biased and motivated opinions and corruption. Babus are scared to be exposed. And, they have a protector in Dr Manmohan Singh. Power indeed makes strange bed fellows. |
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Indo
Canadian Politicians find New Friends THE past week was unusual for keen political observers of the Indo Canadian community. Although there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, but three prominent Indo Canadian leaders surprised everyone by making new alliances. The shrewdest one among them – the former BC Premier and the federal Liberal MP, Ujjal Dosanjh has now become a friend of the fundamentalist Sikhs. Dosanjh, a liberal leftist who has always been known as a moderate Sikh, opposed to the Punjabi extremists has now befriended with a prominent supporter of the International Sikh Youth Federation. According to reports he has tried to help Jaspal Singh Atwal, who was convicted for attempting to murder a former Punjab Minister, late Malkiat Singh Sidhu. Interestingly, Atwal was also charged with beating Dosanjh, but later acquitted. While Dosanjh claims that he has no ill will against Atwal, he did not want to come into the picture. He instead asked his liberal colleague Don Bell to help him in getting visa to travel to India, reports said. The Indian embassy has blacklisted Atwal. Dosanjh’s supporters feel that he is a "forgiver’’. He, however, should take lessons in public relations. To the embarrassment of Dosanjh, the story was leaked to the media by his foes. Atwal is a complainant in a police inquiry against Gurmant Grewal, a former Tory MP. Grewal is accused of mishandling political donations and is a known political enemy of Dosanjh ever since he secretly taped his conversation with the latter. This episode has not surprised those who are cynical about politics. After all Dosanjh left communists to become an NDP leader and went to become British Columbia premier. Later he became a Liberal, claiming that he does not believe in labels. His assets are indeed articulation and sincere hard work, but then people do expect him to honour some long cherished commitments. Not to be left behind, the citizenship judge, Shinder Purewal has now joined the ruling Conservative Party of Canada. Purewal at one point was known as a committed foot soldier of the former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin. He has always been known as a die hard Liberal and a strong opponent of the Tories. Gulzar Cheema, the former BC minister is going to join the Tories shortly. His Liberal membership is going to expire on August 2. He has already made it clear that he won’t renew it. Cheema had some association with the NDP in the past. He later joined the BC Liberal Party. Although he was a minister in the provincial government he decided to quit and join the Federal Liberal Party. The BC Liberals are different from the Federal Liberals. The former is a right wing alliance of the Tories and the Liberals, while the latter is a centrist party. Cheema ran unsuccessfully as a federal Liberal candidate. He is now interested in trying his luck as a Conservative candidate with a hope that the Tories will form a majority government next time. All three men have become inaccessible to the media. Majority Indo Canadians think that these men have "Indianized’’ Canadian politics. But the Aya Raam, Gayaa Raam politics is not uncommon in Canada too. After all David Emerson had crossed floor too to become a Tory minister despite winning as a Liberal candidate in the last Federal election. Bob Rae, the former Ontario Premier who was with the NDP is now seeking the leadership of the Federal Liberal Party. Politics has now become another source of entertainment. There is nothing that the Indo Canadians should feel bad about their leaders. |
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CALL
it colonial legacy from the imperial rulers or equally detestable imposing
mindset of the post independent elite, the Indian public has always been
kept outside the governance. What happened in the world of the bureaucracy,
the big and small babus and how and why they arrived at the decisions that
had direct impact of the lives of millions of people, the people were denied
any information. There is still a draconian 1923 Official Secrets Act that
could take anyone even journalists to prison for possessing any small
document marked secret or top secret. The public had to struggle for even
small bits of information they needed desperately to assert their rightful
demands like how much was sanctioned for the public water supply scheme in a
particular village and where that money has gone as no water supply was
visible. This created a vast chasm between the rulers and the ruled and
struck at the roots of this nascent democracy.