Democracy demands an open government.
The RTI (Right to Information) act has proved to be boon people suffering from maladministration in India. The act has enabled activists to expose many acts of commission and omission by the bureaucrats and the politicians which range from misappropriation of funds to delay in speed-post to decisions of ministers which help their own institutions. Some of the recent headlines in the newspapers says it all : " IAS officer pays power bills from fund for 1984 Sikh riot victims "; "Speed-post delivers at a snail's pace"; "Revenue Minister Patangrao Kadam took eight decisions within seven months favouring Bharati Vidhyapeeth, of which he is Chancellor".
However, it is a sad fact that only 27 percent of the queries have been given information. Now there is a move by the government to bring in an amendment to deny information on the grounds that the queries are 'frivolous or vexatious'. Both the expressions are subjective and could be used by the information commissioners, who are mostly former bureaucrats, to deny information on the acts of the government and the activities of the bureaucrats and the politicians. There is no need to amend the act but there is a need to fulfill the mandate of Act. The activists should prevail upon the government to appoint eminent persons from the public life especially from the bar and from among the retired judges to inspire confidence among he people.
The recent decision of the Supreme Court judges to declare their assets in the website and another decision by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to have all the reports of the expert committees that inspect universities on its website have given hopes of an open society in the country. Now all activists have to fight for a transparent governance with all decisions of the government departments on its website so that people would be able to access all information that affect them from the government websites. Only an open government will make Indian democracy successful.
November 11,2009.
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