Don’t take away this right

It was meant to be a great move towards open government. What successive governments had tarried over, the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government was planning to go ahead with, amidst much self-congratulation about moving into the 21st century. But eventually, the bureaucratic mindset seems to have triumphed over the needs of the citizenry. Now a major caveat will be added to the Right to Information Act — file notations will removed from public view.

This defeats the entire purpose of the exercise. The act was ostensibly passed to make it easier for the people of the country to get access to information about government decisions. Expunging file notations takes a very important part of the decision-making process out of that equation.

It is not hard, of course, to understand why the bureaucracy and even their political masters want to make the change. It is in their nature to hide behind the Official secrets Act for every measly crumb of information the people might want to know about. The implications for bureaucrats are clear: if people get to know how decisions are made, they will also know how well or badly government works, where the inefficiency lies, how their tax rupees are spent, what vested interests are at work and other such nuggets that are best kept secret from the citizen.

Although India has been a sovereign republic since 1950, our governments have not always understood this. The bureaucracy often functions as if it was still a colonising force. Sadly for the bureaucracy, times have changed. People will demand to know more and they cannot be denied it. Across the country, people have responded positively to the Right to Information Act and many see it as the only way to nab corrupt officials. That power, once given, will not be surrendered without a fight. One of the effects of increased liberalisation and globalisation is a citizenry that demands more, as a consumer of goods and services and as a participant in government. Public servants, on the other hand, are stuck in a time warp.

Already civil society organisations, which had fought a valiant battle to get this law passed, are gearing up for another round of battle. The government, which is also toying with a draconian broadcast bill, and recently shut down blogs, stands warned that it will soon have a fight on its hand if it goes ahead with the amendments to RTI Act and other similar anti-democratic measures.