Can the Indian democracy claim this century for its own? That seems to me a tall order, even if after factoring in all the positives that have accrued to both the economy, and consequently, society. In part because there’s one vital facet of this democracy that has not yet been truly freed of its chronic mindset of protectionism. This facet is that of governance, which is increasingly being acknowledged as the key to broadbased development. And for governance to be truly democratic, and facilitate equal opportunity for all, an informed citizenry is a must.
It is one and a half years since the Central Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed. There were huge expectations that this law would bring in much-needed transformation in governance. And rightly so. The experience with the RTI Acts in many states earlier had been quite encouraging.
However, the experiences with the central RTI Act have been mixed. A trend can be seen —when you file an RTI application, either you get information in the very first instance; if you do not and if you file an appeal, there is very little chance that you will get information. The appellate process, notably the information commissioners, barring a few exceptions, is perceived to be functioning against citizens rather than protecting their interests.
There is one area where the RTI Act has so far been used with great precision—if any legitimate work was pending in any government department and government officials were not doing it, either because they expected a bribe or simple bureaucratic lethargy. The RTI Act has proved very effective in such situations. Whether it is a pending passport or an income tax refund or an old age pension or a caste certificate or any other work—earlier people used to feel completely helpless in their day-to-day dealings with government. RTI has given ordinary people the power to be able to challenge bribery. There are thousands of people across the country who used RTI and said no to bribes.
How does it work? When you ask questions such as—give me the names of the officials who were responsible for doing my work and who have not done it, why has my work not been done so far, when will my work be done now—it becomes difficult for government departments to reply to your queries. Because the responsibility gets fixed. In most cases, before they provide information, they end up doing your job.
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