Email
Print
ShareBy opting out of the post of chief election commissioner for India and deciding instead to be the state information commissioner for Jammu & Kashmir, Wajahat Habibullah has emphasised the importance of the Right to Information.
This weapon, somewhat reluctantly handed to the citizens of India -- or some might say wrested from the government -- is essential to both increasing the common man's participation in governance as well as to ensure accountability.
Habibullah feels that he has served his time at the Centre and now needs to use that experience to make RTI work in a crucial state like Jammu & Kashmir. He said in an interview to DNA that the right will go a long way in "calming" the state.
This is a very significant statement in that it acknowledges the efficacy of this law to empower citizens. Because RTI allows you to ask questions of government, it removes or at any rate reduces the feeling that you are helpless.
But much as RTI is the answer to many problems, it has not been a seamless exercise in participatory democracy. Government departments across the country have tried their best to stonewall, stymie and in any way possible handicap the free flow of information.
Although RTI in India comes with a penalty clause, the fear of loss of salary has still not deterred many from withholding facts and details. All kinds of stratagems, from delays to invoking confidentiality to even giving half-baked information have been deployed to undermine RTI. Activists have been fighting this and Habibullah has passed several strictures on defaulters but not to much avail. He will be challenged in Jammu and Kashmir.
There has been needless controversy on his successor at the Centre and while a debate on what kind of a person should be the chief information commissioner is necessary, it is unfortunately turning into a personality and ego battle.
There is a fear that a bureaucrat in that position could be a hindrance, on the other hand civil servants also know the system well, so could be useful. The objective should be to get an efficient person and ensure the RTI becomes stronger and does not get diluted.
The fact is that government is used to being secretive. But the fight to open government up must continue. In the immortal words of the poet Arthur Hughes Clough, "say not the struggle naught availeth"; the tougher the battle, the more it must be fought. RTI is here to stay. Government has to make the necessary adjustments.
