On 8th Anniversary of RTI Act, we salute India’s defending champions

10th October, 2013: On the eve of the 8th anniversary of India’s Right to Information Act, it is worth remembering that this anniversary honours not just a popular legislation called RTI Act 2005, but also the legion of heroes of the RTI movement. Some heroes of this revolutionary movement are iconic. They earned recognition and love for their pioneering work, for kindling a vast grassroots movement by spreading awareness and detailed knowledge of the RTI Act and RTI rules. With zeal and foresight, they created the first generation of people who knew how to draft RTI applications and speak up at appeal hearings. These people in turn mentored thousands of others, and created a huge wave of RTI work for both administration and media. These thousands of nameless, faceless RTI applicants pursuing their lonely quest to hold the administration accountable in every city, town and village, are making government officials less arrogant. They are forcing the government to respect the might of the common man, more than they ever have since Independence.

However, it is worth remembering that the government, parliament and administration are not entirely villains – although sometimes, it may seem that way. Because, to cope with this flood of requests for information, this very government created, within a very short time after October 2005, a vast administrative machinery consisting of lakhs of Public Information Officers, First Appellate Authorities and Information Commissioners.

Remember, in the 55 preceding years of Independent India, most government organizations were represented before the public by one or two Public Relations Officer (PROs). The task of a PRO was largely to respond to the members of the public with a cup of tea and a friendly “no” to any request for information – or, at best, to grudgingly give some sketchy information.

Considering all this, the progress that has been made on both sides of the administrative table since 2005 is astonishing.

Paradoxically, our collective unhappiness with the implementation of Right to Information is largely because this legal right is being used by so many people! RTI Act is giving rise to literally tens of thousands of interactions with various organs of administration, which simply did not exist before 2005.

At first sight, it may seem as though the pent-up fury of 55 years of Independence has been released; there is a flood that is unstoppable. But wait, let us not get carried away by rhetoric. Consider these facts: 

·         GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: Roughly half of these RTI interactions (applications and appeals) are of government employees (or former government employees) trying to get their service matters resolved – matters relating to transfers, promotions, selections, pensions etc.

·         AGGRIEVED CITIZENS: The other half of RTI interactions are primarily of private citizens seeking to resolve their own private grievances. Some of these RTI applications and appeals are oblique complaints – complaints ingeniously worded in the form of RTI applications. Other RTI applications are for follow-up of complaints or representations to various government departments, quasi-judicial or even judicial forums. RTI is enabling them to actively pursue their fundamental rights.

·         PUBLIC-INTEREST CAMPAIGNERS, ACADEMICS & WHISTLE-BLOWERS. A small but significant percentage of RTI interactions are concerning matters of public interest. Some people are using RTI systematically to focus on certain aspects of public policy, and they are putting out well-reasoned, thoroughly researched reports to the government. Simultaneously, knowledgeable citizens and political activists, angered by the bad quality of administration, are trying to enforce accountability and expose scams in order to make a point. They are filing complaints, public interest litigations (PILs), and potent media reports. This activity is both revolutionary and subversive. On the one hand, it is pushing the administration to self-correct. On the other hand, it is stoking anti-establishment sentiments by heaping shame on all government and administration authorities, by using its own laws, rules and mechanisms.

The government responds by studiously ignoring these modern-day revolutionaries, and reserving the Padma awards and state benefits for cricketers, bollywood actors and other celebrities. RTI activists are daily doing the thankless job of cleaning up the administration in their villages, talukas, district-headquarters and small towns. Unrecognized, unrewarded but struggling every day, these people are chipping away at bad governance. But we, as a nation, continue to ignore them and waste our admiration on trivial celebrities. Even the common man pays only token respect to RTI activists, often only after they have been assaulted or murdered.

On this anniversary, let us remember the heroic persons whom we may have the privilege of knowing. But more so, let us dedicate it to the nameless and faceless RTI Activist – that man or woman who walks or rides a scooter in sun and rain, and insistently goes to the offices of various public authorities, filing RTI applications, appeals, attending hearings, seeking justice from an unjust and insensitive system.

Every so often, someone raises the question of who is an “RTI activist”, as opposed to a mere “RTI applicant” or “aggrieved person” or “information seeker”. On this anniversary, let us remember that this is largely an imaginary distinction. Right to Information Act 2005 has empowered the common man to question government servants and hold them accountable by corresponding with lakhs of Public Information Officers (PIOs), thousands of First Appellate Authorities, and over a hundred Information Commissioners in various States. The term “RTI activist” generally encompasses the entire civil society movement consisting of lakhs of independent citizens, plus a few hundred NGOs, who are questioning the administration on various issues, public or private.

No two RTI activists are the same. Some are habituated to filing hundreds of RTI applications to a wide range of government authorities on a variety of issues. They unearth hundreds of documents and get them published by the media, throwing light on a wide variety of issues. Other activists drill deep into one or two issues for years. Some activists frequently file first and second appeals, doggedly attend hearings, try to get the PIO penalized, and even try to get thousands of pages of information free-of-charge if the PIO missed his deadlines. Others try to get their individual or collective grievances redressed by using RTI applications as a pressure tactic. Some are neighbourhood watchdogs, supervising the municipality’s garbage-disposal, encroachment-clearance, hawkers, roads etc. Others are RTI trainers, helpers, mentors, webmasters, journalists etc., who find fulfillment by helping other people file RTI applications and appeals.

A defining characteristic of RTI activists is that they are usually leaderless and cannot be tamed. They are fiercely independent and notoriously difficult to organize into hierarchical groups. Generally, they spend money from their own pockets. Unlike NGOs, RTI activists get no government funding or corporate sponsors. They are usually unable to conform to organizational norms of behavior, and hence, cannot form associations or political parties.

Possibly the only common factor that characterizes all RTI activists is that they seek RULE OF LAW – which clearly has been eroded by decades of party politics, influence-yielding, favour-seeking and quid-quo-pro deals. As a rule, RTI activists are trying to get various rules and laws implemented. The constant basis of their actions is to compare laws, rules, norms, manuals, guidelines, circulars and terms & conditions with the administration’s failure to perform on various fronts, especially service delivery, due diligence, vigilance and law & order enforcement.

The RTI movement is an ongoing revolution. It is a statement of the common man’s faith in the democratic system that, though corroded and crooked, still somehow works. It is an authentic grassroots-level Satyagraha movement, that consists of persistently doing the rounds of government offices, seeking information and justice. Despite suffering many defeats and insults from the administration and even the judiciary, RTI activists refuse to quit, refuse to yield to cynicism and pessimism. They refuse to accept the all-pervasive belief that this nation of ours cannot be fixed!

On 12th October, 2013, we will not only salute eight years of RTI Act 2005, but also bow our heads to this massive body of men and women in cities, towns and villages, whose faith in the system just keeps them marching, stumbling along year after year in the direction of good governance. They are the keepers of the sacred flame of India.

Warm Regards,

Krish

            98215 88114      

Mumbai

RTI Activists & Letter-writers, Get Useful Tips from Govt’s Manual of Office Procedures

Dear friends,

Please study the government’s Manual of Office Procedures to understand how documentation is done in various government offices: http://tinyurl.com/Govt-manual-office-procedures   Then you can refer to documents by their proper names given in this document e.g. “Diary Number, Index Slip, Messenger Book” etc.  Because the biggest challenge for filing an RTI application is how to correctly word it; a properly-worded application means half the battle is won before it begins!

POINTS OF INTEREST:

·         Definitions (Chapter 2)

·         Forms & Procedures of Communication (Chapter 8)

·         Dak-Receipt, Registration & Distribution (Chapter 4) to understand how faxes, emails and letters marked “Immediate” or “Confidential” are dealt with in the government.

·         File Numbering System (Chapter 11), including the system for Reconstruction of File (point no. 99) and Tracking File Movements (point no. 100)

·         Present location of the file in Departmental Record Room, National Archives of India, Record Retention Schedule etc., whether computerized or not, etc. (Appendix 56 and 66)

WHY WORDINGS ARE CRUCIAL:

·         The way you word an RTI application will determine the way the Public Information Officer (PIO) responds to it. An RTI application that is excessively detailed, appears full of anger, or seems like a personal challenge thrown at him, may not only trigger negative feelings in him, but also cause him to postpone replying to your application. Afterwards, as the 30-day deadline for giving information approaches, he may wish to stonewall you by citing irrelevant or partially relevant rules simply because he wants to dispose off your application with minimum time and energy. So, keep it simple!

·         If you do not get proper information at first, you may be forced to enter into a lengthy appeal procedure. The final outcome of your appeal (whether first appeal, second appeal, or further appeals in High Court and Supreme Court) may to depend heavily on the exact words you have used in your RTI application. So, frame your questions with care!

HANDY REFERENCE MATERIAL:

·         Tips on wording an RTI application, read: http://tinyurl.com/RTI-7-surprising-tips

·         Pitfalls to avoid: http://tinyurl.com/RTI-psychological-barriers

·         Specimen of good RTI Application: http://tinyurl.com/RTI-application-form-specimen   

Warm Regards,

Krish

            9821588114      

GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thank you activist Ameet Israni for emailing the Manual of Procedures to me today. Of course it is nothing new, and of course, everybody knows it is available on the internet, but sometimes, drawing someone’s attention helps a lot!

A'bad Men’s Mouth Cancer doubled in 20 years, shows Research

Nagpur shows similar trend. Is this nationwide?

30 November 2012, Mumbai: No wonder the Directors of Regional Cancer Centers have written letters to Prime Minister and Union Health Minister, urging nationwide implementation of the gutka ban. Confronted with a near-doubling of mouth cancer rates since the mid-1980s, policy-makers and tobacco-control activists have cause to worry whether the ban on gutka is too-little-too-late. The cancer registry data published by Gujarat Cancer Research Center over the 20-year period spanning 1985 and 2006, when analyzed by Mumbai’s Healis-Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, reveals a near-doubling of oral cancer rates across different age-groups. The cohort (group) of males who attained the age of 34 in 1995 suffered 2.1 oral cancer cases per lakh males between the ages of 25 and 34 (10-year-span). The cohort of males that was 10 years older (i.e. which attained the age of 34 in 1985) had suffered only 1.2 oral cancer cases per lakh between the ages of 25 and 34. The as-yet-unpublished analysis (which is an update of a study published in Journal of Medical Association in 1999 titled Mouth Cancer in India – A New Epidemic?) included cancer of the cheeks, lower and upper jaw, hard and soft palate and gums in males only. See the chart shown below:

This chart is based on the data points presented in the below table:

This steep trend continued as the youngest cohort attained the age of 44 in 2006; it suffered 15.9 oral cancer cases between the ages of 35 and 44. Again, this was close to double the rate of older age group (8.5 oral cancer cases per lakh males between 35-44), and nearly three times the cancer rate (5.6 oral cancer cases) of another age group that was 20 years older.

Between the two older groups, the same trend-line was visible. Those who attained the age of 54 in 2006 showed roughly double the cancer incidence of the oldest group (34.1 as against 17.6 cases) between the ages of 45 and 54.

Overall, this research says that the rate of cancer has doubled in the two decades between 1985 and 2006. It confirms what cancer surgeons all over the country are saying from their observation: India is in the grip of an oral-cancer epidemic, largely caused by increase in tobacco-chewing and smoking. This data makes out a case for banning not just gutka, where tobacco is added to other food materials, but also chewing tobacco itself which has not been banned. Chewing tobacco per se is not subject to the gutka ban, and continues to be freely available in various forms such as “filter khaini”, tobacco eaten with betel leaf paan and as tobacco that is hand-mixed with lime. It also makes out a case for banning bidis and cigarettes, which have a somewhat less direct relationship with mouth cancer.

Dr Prof Santanu Chaudhuri, an eminent oncologist and Director of RST Regional Cancer Hospital, Nagpur, confirms this trend.  “A study carried out in RST Regional Cancer Hospital, which was published in the Journal of the Academy of Medical Sciences, indicates that oral cavity cancer is becoming very common in young population of 25-40 years of age.  10 years back, it was common between 40 – 60 year of age. In 1995-96, the incidence was 17% i.e. out of 500 patients, 85 belonged to the younger age group. This rose to 25% in 2002–03 (150 out of 600) and 33% in 2006-07 (231 out of 700),” says Dr Santanu, citing the study.

“Tobacco has turned out to be the biggest menace in the field of oncology,” he adds. “It is a preventable cause of cancer. Various studies have clearly proved that, use of tobacco causes oral cancer. In my clinical practice, I am shocked to see young people who have tobacco addiction coming to us with oral cancers and that too, in advanced stages. This trend of increase in number of young patients coming with tobacco induced oral cancer has become very prevalent in central India in recent times.”

“We are seeing many families destroyed because of the cancer related mortalities due to tobacco. We are losing the young generation of India to tobacco. This generation, who are supposed to be the builders of the Nation, are destroying themselves due to this tobacco curse,” Dr Santanu laments.

Another study by Balchandra B Yeole titled Trends in Incidence of Head and Neck Cancers in India, published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention in 2007, explains the risk-ratios between bidi-smoking, tobacco-chewing and different kinds of cancer: “Risk ratio of bidi smokers was higher for cancers of oropharynx (RR=10.4) and Larynx (RR=7.7) than chewers (RR=3.3) and (RR=7.8) for oropharynx and larynx. Whereas risk in chewers is higher for cancer of oral cavity (RR=6.0) and oropharynx (RR=4.5) than in bidi smokers (RR=2.1) for oral cancers and (RR=2.4) for hypopharynx. Those combining the habit of smoking and chewing have a much higher risk, almost multiplicative compared to those indulging in only the single habit. The risk of combined habits is particularly high for cancers of oropharynx (RR=31.7), hypopharynx (RR=16.9) and larynx (RR=20.1)… It is worthwhile noting that bidi smokers have a much higher risk of oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancer than that of cigarette smokers.”

About 30% of the oral cancer patients coming in nowadays are in their 20s and 30s, observes Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Associate Professor of Tata Memorial Hospital. He has been examining about 200 oral cancer patients every week since 2002 at this Regional Cancer Center, where patients come not only from all over the Maharashtra, but also from many distant and neighbouring states of India. His observations are borne out by many other oncologists and surgeons all over the country.

Dr Prakash Gupta, Director of Healis-Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, and a reputed research scientist, has participated in many all-India and global studies on the connection between tobacco use and cancers. Dr Gupta says, “Our analysis, based on data released by Gujarat Cancer Research Center in 2008, shows a trend that is probably countrywide and continuing even today. I have zero hesitation in saying that India’s oral cancer profile continues to get younger, and ongoing research will give conclusive proof of this. There is a clear connection between India’s rising oral cancer and the continuing success of the tobacco industry relentlessly promoting smoking and tobacco-chewing among school-children and college age youths. Notwithstanding the state-level bans on gutka and rising excise duties on cigarettes, this predatory industry is far from defeated.”

Many doctors concur. Dr Dhawal Shah, ENT, head & neck cancer and laser surgeon practicing at at Baroda, says, “I definitely agree that oral and orophayrngeal cancers have increased to a great extend in younger age group viz. 25-35 yrs of age. Among the reasons that have contributed to this disaster is the status symbol of chewing tobacco and even smoking cigatettes in young school-going children 10 - 18 age. This is observed more in village schools. Although gutka has been banned in Gujarat and many other states, pan masalas with different trade names like Vimal, Zatpat, Parag and Pan Villas are freely sold with separate pouches of tobacco, and at the same price as gutka. Various carcinogenic factors are found even in pan masala. Worsening matters are stressful and sedentary lifestyles, unbalanced diet and poor oral hygiene in young generations.

Says Dr Rajesh Dikshit, Associate Professor-Epidemiology at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital, “It is interesting to see that trends for oral cavity are increasing for younger age group. This highlights the importance of immediate action against tobacco use in any form.”

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For further details & contacts, call Krish             9821588114 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            9821588114      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      

Voice of Tobacco Victims

A Campaign by Healis - Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health

in collaboration with Tata Memorial Hospital & other organizations

Dr Prof Santanu Chaudhuri, Director of RST Regional Cancer Hospital, Nagpur, examining oral cancer patient -- victim of oral tobacco

Right to Information -- The Battle for True Citizenship

Dear friends,

The passing of Right to Information Act 2005 was like the unfurling of a flag, heralding the coming-of-age of ‘We the People’. It was not just another mundane event in the life of our nation; it showed a shift in the national psyche.

By winning Independence Struggle I, we sent the British ruler home, but we inherited the baggage they left behind:

(i) A bureaucratic structure that was, as Wajahat Habibullah noted, suited more for colonial slave India than free democratic India

(ii) A legal structure biased towards maintaining the inequality between the rulers and the ruled. Upon the foundation of Official Secrets Act 1923 and other archaic and dysfunctional laws (such as Bombay Municipal Corporation Act 1888), we unthinkingly based our more recent laws. Our Constitution – painstakingly debated and written between 1947 and 1950 -- is forward-looking and seeks to empower citizens

(iii) Our judiciary, with its archaic privileges and untrammeled powers. And now it is like a schizophrenic in character – struggling to retain these privileges, but simultaneously wishing to respond to the common man’s cry for better governance and cleaner administration.

As a result of our inherited historical baggage, our establishment thinks like East India Company. Without any guilt, it is plundering tribal lands with economic policies and at gunpoint, because it believes in the rightness of achieving economic growth at all costs. It guiltlessly goes about facilitating massive land acquisition, suspension of labour laws and massive tax breaks for the wealthy in Special Economic Zones. The government talks about inclusive growth and progress for all without even realizing the irony of what they are doing.

Our own daily public behavior as citizens reflects the slave-citizen’s urge to gather and hoard up undue privileges, influence and power. We seek to encash and leverage every tiny piece of privileged information, every discretionary power and every scrap of political influence that we each have. Like toxic pesticides getting concentrated as it goes up the food chain, each citizen’s greed to pick up the biggest slice of cake gets concentrated thousand-fold as it goes up the local self-government chain. By the time it reaches the level of the ministries, the greed assumes demonic proportions.

Independence Struggle II, which started in the late 90s, and flowered with the passing of the RTI Act 2005, is ongoing. This struggle is against misuse of powers by bureaucracy, the political class and the vested interests. Thousands of us civil-society members are now soldiers, spending time and money to battle against the demon that we ourselves feed in our daily lives. Thousands of us are actively risking their lives to make our system transparent and responsive to the common man. The stepped-up rate of attacks on activists and whistle-blowers in 2010 is testimony to this battle.

This phenomenon has dimensions that we have not yet fully understood and assimilated. The ongoing changes are historical, political, social, cultural and legal. Let us look at these changes.

1) A POLITICAL & HISTORICAL REVOLUTION IS IN PROGRESS. From 1947 till 2005, citizens in general only used to vote and pay taxes. They did not actively participate in governance. Till around 1980, the only citizens who participated in politics were Gandhian-types and independent-minded journalists. Later, there was the growth of NGOs, but as they sought government support and funding, most of them did not oppose the government in a meaningful way. It is only since the passing of RTI Act 2005 that citizens at large have begun to participate in governance, and hold the govt. and administration accountable by asking tough questions and demanding answers. In fact, after RTI ordinances were passed of Maharashtra and other states in 2002, thousands of activist citizens all over the country started filing RTI applications and unearthing dirt and corruption. This number has now swelled to several lakhs. This is a major aspect of Independence Struggle II.

2) THERE IS A SHIFT IN BALANCE OF POWER TOWARDS ORDINARY CITIZEN. The passing of the Right To Information Act in 2005 gave citizens a new locus standivis-à-vis the government and administration, enabling ordinary people to demand access to documents that were hitherto “official secrets” or “marked confidential”. By ending the stranglehold of the pre-colonial Official Secrets Act 1923, the RTI Act changed the balance of power between citizens and bureaucracy. Early pioneers (like late Prakash Kardaley, Late Kewal Semlani and Shailesh Gandhi and Anna Hazare in Maharashtra, Aruna Roy in Rajasthan and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi region) systematically taught people the logic of RTI, creating a well-informed swarm of citizens to question the government on non-performance, arbitrariness and corruption.

Technology is playing a key role in this sweeping change. Email groups, blogs and mobile technology are acting as hubs in the further education of citizens and media by a second generation of RTI activists and experts. With hundreds of aggressive activists scooping out skeletons, there is now a mass movement that is no longer dependent on the initiatives of a few enlightened persons. Indeed, judicial and administrative reforms today provokes popular emotions that were earlier seen only in issues like river-water-sharing, linguistic borders and reservations.

3) CRIME-FIGHTING IS NOW A SOCIALLY RECOGNIZED ACTIVITY. It is no exaggeration to say that RTI “activists” (as opposed to RTI “users”) are modern-day detectives and crime-fighters. Unlike Phantom, Spiderman and other imaginary super-heroes, they don’t use fists and guns; like Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason, they use their brains to get expose crime and sleaze. Forced by deliberate failure of authorities to stop ongoing criminal activities, they set out to expose the crimes and the complicity of officials. (Sometimes, crime-fighting originates from personal vendetta, or results in personal vendetta, or both. It can be a vicious death-cycle.)

Unknowingly, the State is itself creating such crime-fighters through its inaction. Agonizingly slow case disposal by Information Commissioners discourages many information seekers. But it also turns substantial numbers of information seekers into experts and hard-boiled activists. During the 6-18 months of waiting for hearings at State and Central Information Commissioners (SICs/CICs), frustrated RTI applicants get lots of free advice from senior colleagues, network together and establish groups. Together, they evolve ingenious ways of challenging the system with a combination of RTI applications to various public authorities, complaints,letter-baazi, sting operations, media exposes etc. They develop various legal, administrative and arm-twisting methods for seeking remedy. The slow-moving system is thus helping to create an army of its own enemies.

Crime-fighting is a dangerous activity. Over recent decades, the power to get an FIR registered with the police or Anti-Corruption Bureau with basic evidence of wrongdoing has slipped out of the common citizen’s hands, and accumulated in the hands of the powerful, influential and rich. CrPC sections 154 and 156 say that for FIR to be registered, cognizable offence must be “made out” by the citizen’s complaint; it is the job of the police investigation to gather enough evidence to later frame a charge-sheet and place it before the court. Due to police officials’ unwillingness to perform their legal duties – no doubt under political and bureaucratic pressures – RTI activists endanger their lives trying to gather more and more documentary evidence to nail the culprits in court -- a dangerous activity, especially when powerful MLAs, MPs, ministers and history-sheeters are involved.

4) WHERE THERE IS A REVOLUTION, THERE IS ALSO A COUNTER-REVOLUTION. The government policy of routinely selecting political appointees and retired babus for the posts of Information Commissioners is an effort to subvert the effectiveness of the RTI Act. Does anybody believe that after decades in the administration, a retired IAS officer will force his former colleagues to give out embarrassing information? Is it likely that bureaucrats or political party workers will compel disclosure of documents that may be used as evidence in court? Appointment of such people as SICs/CICs violates the basic tenet of natural justice, viz. “No one should be judge in his own cause.” While minimizing the chances of timely information disclosure and justice, such appointments maximize the chances of the activist’s strategies being leaked the Information Commissioner or his staff to land and mining mafias etc, leading to threats, attacks and killings. For thousands of activists countrywide, this is not a hypothetical scenario but a regular occurrence.

5) LEGAL AWARENESS OF ORDINARY CITIZENS IS RISING. The RTI Act is seen as the only law that enables a citizen to get a bureaucrat or government servant penalized, or be subjected to departmental enquiry and disciplinary action. This has excited and attracted the common citizen – included semi-educated types – into an effort to take ownership of this law, and understand its workings in the practical world. It has also brought the common citizen closer to laws in general. Lakhs of educated information-seekers and activists spend hours daily exchanging legal notes on the internet. The hits and updates on dedicated RTI websites like RTIIndia.org, or email forums likehumjanenge@yahoogroups.co.in, possibly exceed the hits by lawyers on law websites like vakilno1.com. (In fact, a growing proportion of hits on law websites come from RTI activists looking for Court judgments to cite in their appeals before Information Commissioners!)

Even where internet has not reached, there are, on any given day of the week, a score of activists and NGO workers sitting with villagers and slum-dwellers, patiently explaining the rules of the game and helping to draft requests for information, and appeals against unjustified delay and denial. Through RTI, legal awareness has entered India’s DNA. RTI activists and users are not only studying RTI Act and rules of various States, courts, etc, but also scrutinizing the rules, norms, manuals, guidelines, contracts, penalty clauses, etc. of various government organizations, public works awarded to contractors etc. Also, they are studying and discussing the structure of various other laws such as Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code etc., which was earlier left only to lawyers and judges.

THE FUTURE LIES IN HYBRID CHECKS & BALANCES

Ultimately, the success or failure of an RTI applicant depends on a clear understanding of the workings and limitations of the RTI Act and the mechanisms for its implementation, and accordingly, in the precise wordings of his RTI application and later, RTI appeals. It also depends on a clear understanding of how administration and government works at its various levels, and how various existing systems of checks-and-balances work. Civil society as a whole, because of its long dormancy and overdependence on administration, had forgotten how to activate checks-and-balances. Large numbers of citizens currently need familiarization with existing mechanisms. They also need some help with thought and reflection to alter their own bad habits of thinking and behaviour.

Hence, there is need for capacity-building and mentoring of active citizens in all these respects to facilitate the ongoing revolution. We cannot afford to wait for NGOs and trusts to do this; individual activists must take it upon themselves to perform this crucial task. It is as important as filing RTI applications, writing complaints and attending appeal hearings.

To remain a few steps ahead of vested interests, we, the active citizens, must innovate and build hybrid checks-and-balance mechanisms using existing legal structures and new communication technologies. Instead of passively waiting for the legislature to pass new laws, let us explore and create new ways of doing things – establishing new behavioural and thought patterns -- to attain clean governance. There will of course be failures… and then there will be successes.

When we build with faith and love, God builds in our midst. So let us build.

Warm Regards,

Krish

98215 88114

Is RTI activism succeeding? Nazar ko badal ke dekho, nazaare badal jaayenge!

Dear fellow activists,

Sometimes, realities change and we fail to notice. The ground-shift since the enactment of the Right to Information Act on 15 June 2005 has gone unnoticed. Absorbed as we are in the details, I think we missed seeing the big picture.

The RTI Act gave us a lot more than just access to information. It shifted the balance of power. By making the walls of government porous, it allowed citizens to enquire into governance. It made every common man a superintendent over the activities of the State.

We the people of India awakened to a sense of our real ownership of this nation. But we the activists of India continued to beat our breasts and lament, and exchange old tales of our powerlessness.

Look around you. Every week, in each state and at the centre, new tales of heroism are emerging. Half a dozen Information Commissioners are each presiding over scores of hearings where the administration is on trial, where ordinary citizens are knowingly or unknowingly playing the role of prosecutors. These are not high-profile heroes like Anna Hazare and Medha Patkar, these are not seasoned system fighters… yet they are engaging the administration in a blow-by-blow battle. Painfully aware that the battlefield is slanted in favour of the administration, they bash on nevertheless!

Every week, heads roll, sometimes on both sides. Ordinary men and women living in ordinary neighborhoods fight with extraordinary courage for justice and truth. Can there be a greater Satyagraha?

Observe another massive change. Remember when conferences and seminars used to be for the select few, and one could count them on the fingers of one hand? Today, the equivalent of a dozen state-level and national-level seminars happen on the internet every day, routinely. Several thousand citizens come together on email and on discussion forums, and have an informed discussion in many languages. New insights emerge, new courses of action are decided and executed. This is the new face of activism.

This ongoing revolution is our new reality. The heroes of this revolution are in offices, at street corners, on buses and trains, in suburbs and slums. They eat, breathe and dream their fundamental rights and duties. They daily sacrifice their meager salaries and pensions, and the peace of their families, for one obsessive vision: a cleaner, more transparent India.

STAND BEFORE THE MIRROR AND LOOK INTO YOUR OWN EYES, MY FRIEND, BECAUSE YOU ARE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE. RECOGNIZE YOURSELF. YOU ARE THIS REVOLUTION.

If this is true, then why are we stuck with our feelings of powerlessness and frustration? Because, locked into our own personal battles with the administration, we failed to see the larger picture of the revolution. We are victims of an outdated vision of victory that looks like the final scenes of a movie where villains fall into an abyss and their evil empires literally collapse. This, my friend, is an unrealistic fantasy. Such fantasies condemn people like you and me to remain frustrated and defeated, even though we are continually winning. Such unfulfilled fantasies are draining away our energy and self confidence.

Let us upgrade our vision. In the context of modern India, let us re-envision what victory means.

India is an aggregate of 1.2 billion lives and their dreams -- a massive nation with a huge momentum, moving like a mighty ship through the oceans. So victory cannot be your dream or mine alone. Victory cannot be a 180-degree U-turn by the administration; it can only be a gentle course correction of one or two degrees over some years. But take comfort: when a massive nation steers a couple of degrees, the effect is huge beyond our imagining. Everything changes.

Have faith, massive change will happen… but it will be so gradual and imperceptible that none of us will get any credit for it. There may be no thrilling historic moments. No evil empires will collapse dramatically, because they will dissolve and fade away over some years. There will be no dramatic surrender or laying down of arms, no Freedom at Midnight speeches. Victory will come as a gradual re-discovery of each citizen’s power to say NO to mundane evils in daily life. No glorious heroes will lead the “masses” into battle and emerge victorious; the masses – our countrymen -- will themselves regain a sense of individual and collective public morality, and fight a gradual war against injustice and untruth.

In this war, there may be no Bheeshma-pratigyas -- no grand acts of self-sacrifice or superhuman self-control, no fasts-unto-death, no spectacular Dandi March. There will only be the daily grind of several hundred RTI applications, appeals, hearings, complaints, representations, meetings and a general unwillingness to take the easy way out – an unstoppable nationwide grinding-down of indifference and corruption by small lawful and truthful acts.

So now the shift only needs to happen in our own hearts and minds -- a conscious shift in perspective that we activists need to make. We need to decide: are we investing our life’s energies on winning our own battles, and growing into tall and mighty trees on India’s skyline? Or are we investing in furthering the green growth of the shoots and saplings of “We the people of India”? The latter is a game at which we can never be beaten, regardless of the outcome of our individual battles.

Nazar ko badlo, nazaare badal jaayenge!

As an activist, I used to seek a kind of absolute and indisputable victory in our campaigns. But now I feel that winning is unimportant; what is crucial is that we do battle on a continuing basis, exerting broad moral and legal pressures on the system in the direction of the truth.

Warm Regards,
Krish
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