Fighting for what is right

Even when noted RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi was a student at IIT-Bombay, he knew exactly what he wanted to do in life. “In fact, I told my wife (Bharti) clearly that after I turn 35, it will be social service,” says Gandhi, former central information commissioner.

At a recent IIT-B alumni meet, when one of his professors asked him, if he still feels as strongly against the system, as he used to during his college days, he realised everything was the same but for a minor tweak in his thoughts. “I used to be critical of the government those days, but now I have realised that I am a part of the government. In fact, all citizens are,” he says.

Gandhi, who set up and ran a successful plastics and packaging business for about 20 years, sold it in 2002 to focus solely on the revolutionary RTI act and governance. After he was appointed as the central information commissioner in 2008, which he says was a ‘fluke’, he took aggressive steps to cut short the long wait for cases looking for redressal under the RTI act. What is remarkable is that he spent his entire monthly salary to acquire more staff to ensure a smooth workflow. He even digitised his office, setting a benchmark for government setups. In his tenure as CIC, which was between 2008 and 2012, he created a record by hearing over 20,000 appeals.

All this was only after he took charge as the CIC in Delhi.

Gandhi’s efforts for a clean and effective government started way back, when he was in Mumbai.

During his stay in the city, he had been an active crusader against corruption and brought to light many cases of bad governance and policies. “What we do not realise is that corruption is a by-product of non-transparency,” he says. “We call ourselves a democratic country and have a reasonably fair system of elections, yet we are not getting the fruits of democracy. That is because the system is not transparent,” he adds. Gandhi refers to India as a ‘defective elective democracy’.

He says, “If people want to know the status of their passport in the US, all they have to do is just call. Here, if someone needs to know the status, calling would not even be an option. So, there is a lack of respect for the individual.”

Gandhi strongly believes that the RTI act, if used effectively by the citizens, can bring about a lot of change, as it will empower every individual. “People in power have not yet grasped the importance of RTI. They are yet to realise that they are actually public servants and are answerable to citizens,” he says.

What upsets him is that some sort of laziness and carelessness is slowly seeping into the system. As a result, people filing RTIs are getting delayed responses and at times, half-baked information. “Since the number of pending cases with the commissioners is increasing, people might get disenchanted with the act even before they realise its importance,” he says. “Most information commissioners do not even spend the required hours a week on the appeals they receive. There is no reasonable cost for delay and there are fewer cases of penalty levied on them,” says Gandhi, who during his term had imposed 521 penalties as against the 880 cases put together by all the commissioners. “If the commissioner is penalised, the public information officer (PIO) will be scared. As a result, he will take his work more seriously,” he adds.

So, is the RTI under threat? Yes, possibly, believes Gandhi. So, how do we ensure it does not happen? Gandhi says there has to be a complete change in the democratic paradigm. “We need better information commissioners, appointed through a proper process, instead of the sifarish (recommendation) system, currently in place. People in power are trying to dilute the act and reduce its efficacy. We should not let that happen. Workshops should be organised for government officers and more citizens should be educated about the act,” he says. “After all, citizens own the information and the government,” he adds. This feisty senior citizen has recently moved the Bombay High Court after he failed to procure information on income tax returns filed by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, despite repeated attempts. “Such information belongs to the public and they cannot be denied,” he says.

It has been years since Gandhi started this journey, but even today, he is going strong and refuses to be complacent. These days, however, he files fewer RTIs than he used to. This is because he focuses more on conducting workshops for citizens and government officials on RTI, which he believes will bring transparency into the system.