Murali Karnam
(writer is Assistant professor at TISS, Mumbai in School of Law Rights and Constitutional Governance)
It has been ten years since RTI Act came into existence. No doubt it is one of the progressive legislations that brought out to public some of the most uncomfortable facts of the powerful. Equating RTI with democracy and other forms of claims are all far fetched.
It is well known fact that even those who fought for RTI also are not ready to give more information than restricted by the law. Of the hundred applications under RTI, even if we get responses for only 10, still we claim it is wonderful legislation. There can be several criticisms against RTI, which are discussed widely but there is one serious aspect that was rarely discussed.
In a disciplinarian and state-centric society like India, there is no doubt that law becomes all-encompassing view of social life. Ten years back, if a group of people felt that there was a problem with the way decisions are made by government officials with regard to anything, they used to go and stage a protest, shout, argue, express anger, remind them that they are publicly accountable and they survive on the basis of people’s money etc.
Each one of these aspects is a politically loaded activism about which public servants used to feel tension or threat. These activities released tremendous political energy from people.
This constantly created a dialogue, tension between people and officials and kept the idea of participatory democracy alive.
Officers may not be giving information then but still were scared to face the public and give some excuse or explanation for not giving information.
But today most radical activity begins with petition under RTI application by individuals. No question of groups coming together to protest against the inaction of any officer. Officers take their sweet time to refuse the information. You are forced to go around appealing after appealing until you turn blue in your face.
We are not realizing the fact that all laws, especially like RTI, effectively tame the political energy of the people into petition raj. The powerful told us how obediently ask the information within the exceptions and restrictions imposed by them.
It effectively channelized the political energies of the community as such into petitioning. While it has given us very little, the state gained a lot by making us more apolitical.
This happens if we do not realize the limited meanings of laws and all laws are ultimately controlled by the politics of the powerful. If we give up our political energies of demanding accountability just because the law, RTI is made, then that is what the powerful want. Hence it is important to realize the limited value of the legislation.
English