India’s Right to Information Act (RTI) was passed in the year 2005. This initiative was widely hailed and welcomed as it was one of the most crucial landmark legislation made after Independence. However, during these 15 years, the Right to Information or RTI is dying a slow but certain death.
The implementation of the Act has garnered mixed reactions and it is considered a quality piece of legislation by many.
The RTI Act was enacted to ensure the functioning of the government departments at the Centre and States is transparent and the departments would be accountable to the people.
However, the real situation of the RTI Act is very much far from what was anticipated by the lawmakers of India.
The enactment of the Right to Information Act was received with great enthusiasm by the people and even the government during its initial years took active steps by starting awareness programs among the people.
The RTI applications became a powerful sword in the hands of people. Several scams and scandals of various government departments were exposed through RTIs. There has also been a lot of positive fallout as government departments and officials came under the scanner. But there have been many reports and allegations of misuse of the act.
However, during the past years, the RTI Act public awareness has been muted and even the government has developed a faltered in the proper implementation of the Act. This, in turn, has resulted in very few RTI applications from various sections especially the rural areas, and from women and the weaker segments of the society. The main cause of such aversion is due to the hostile attitude of governmental departments towards the RTI Act. Also, even a large part of the educated societies generally are not aware of the RTI Act.
The recent example was during the ‘demonetization’. When demonetization happened, several RTI applications were routinely rejected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the spacious ground that disclosing the information would ‘prejudicially affect the sovereignty and indignity of the country, the security, strategic and foreign state relations.’
More recently, the Narendra Modi government bluntly rejected several applications that were seeking information about the controversial PM CARES Fund. Helping the government’s venture to make the RTI ineffective is the ‘higher judiciary’. The judicial body itself has been busy resisting to show transparency in its own functioning. After all Supreme Court’s own records in dealing with cases on RTI Acts is in a deteriorating state.
Image source: theQuint
In December 2020 an RTI application of activist Rajeev Bhattacharyya from Guwahati was discarded by MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) citing that disclosure of remuneration of interlocutors can be a security threat.
The unnecessary cult of secrecy.. MHA feels that disclosing the remuneration of interlocutors can be a security threat!!
This is a reply to my RTI. This ministry really takes the cake.. pic.twitter.com/sa0dT6hTik— Rajeev Bhattacharyya (@rajkbhat) December 28, 2020
In Assam state, renowned RTI activists Akhil Gogoi and Dulal Bora for the last few years had filed RTI applications keeping a check on the government. However, the state government has been successful in silencing the voice of both the RTI activists.
There has been also the issue of threats and violence against many RTI activists. As per a report, in the last 15 years, at least 86 people who had filed RTI applications have been killed. Atleast 175 have been attacked, 190 applicants were harassed and at least seven committed suicide.
It is now high time to take the RTI Act to the people by public organizations, NGOs, and other bodies to ensure a vibrant functioning of our democracy. Also, rules should be initiated so that the RTI Act should not be allowed to be misused, abused, or become a tool in obstructing the development of the nation.
Also Read: “Aakuali Care” An Innovative Initiative for Senior Citizens of Assam