Ask and you shall be killed……..Dinesh Thite
When the Right to Information Act was passes in 2005, it was hailed as a revolutionary piece of legislation that makes the government directly answerable to the public. But as the spate of recent attacks on RTI activists shows, RTI queries that threaten to expose corruption in high places can be lethal for those making them. If the state doesn’t protect citizens who use this law for public good, it could end up killing the Act itself, reports Dinesh Thite from Pune
When the Right to Information Act was passes in 2005, it was hailed as a revolutionary piece of legislation that makes the government directly answerable to the public. But as the spate of recent attacks on RTI activists shows, RTI queries that threaten to expose corruption in high places can be lethal for those making them. If the state doesn’t protect citizens who use this law for public good, it could end up killing the Act itself, reports Dinesh Thite from Pune
The Right to Information (RTI) movement in our country has often been described as Indias second freedom struggle. The first freedom movement was against the British. We got our freedom, but one of the legacies of the British Raj the Official Secrets Act, 1923 is still with us.
The British had imposed this law to conceal from the native population the nature and extent of their countrys exploitation by an imperial power. After independence, the Secrets Act continues to be used for much the same purpose by our politicians and bureaucrats.
The RTI Act, 2005 provides the common man a potent weapon to expose government wrongdoing. It empowers the citizen to not only obtain information just like a member of parliament can, but also to use it to as a tool to reduce corruption and encourage transparency.
It was a simple RTI application that helped expose mega scams like that involving Mumbais Adarsh Housing Society. There are numerous other examples of how corruption cases have been exposed by citizens using RTI.
However, in every case, somebodys interests get hurt and when that somebody is a powerful person or a lobby and stakes are high, RTI activists feel the repercussions of exposing corruption.
Understandably, activists and crusaders feel they are suffering the same fate as revolutionaries and satyagrahis of the first freedom struggle.
An activist who beat himself up
The attack last week on RTI activist Arun Baburao Mane, 36, is the latest example of the extreme insecurity faced by those at the frontline of the RTI movement. Mane runs a footwear shop in Talegaon, Pune district, to earn a living. He had been trying to take forward the work started by RTI activist, Satish Shetty, who was murdered in Talegaon in January 2010.
The attack last week on RTI activist Arun Baburao Mane, 36, is the latest example of the extreme insecurity faced by those at the frontline of the RTI movement. Mane runs a footwear shop in Talegaon, Pune district, to earn a living. He had been trying to take forward the work started by RTI activist, Satish Shetty, who was murdered in Talegaon in January 2010.
On January 2, a bloodied and hospitalised Mane with injuries to his head, chest and hand stated that he had been assaulted in his shop. The case took a bizarre turn two days later when he filed an affidavit saying that he had not been attacked but had inflicted the wounds on himself. He also withdrew two police cases against the unidentified assailants.
While Pune superintendent of police Pratap Dighavkar said Mane had self-inflicted the wounds as he was mentally unstable, Mane told The Mag that he had withdrawn the cases for the sake of his familys security. For me, my family is more important than anything else. My family is in trauma and my mother is a heart patient. Therefore, I have withdrawn the cases for her sake and for the sake of my familys security. But the attack on me was genuine.
Like Shetty who was murdered, Mane had been seeking information about land acquisition around the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
His RTI application with the Lonavala police had asked three questions: a) What action have the police taken on the complaint filed by Satish Shetty? b) Had Shetty filed a criminal complaint against a person and a company related to IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd? and c) Are cases pertaining to the mentioned crimes pending in courts? If yes, then who is handling the cases? The answers Mane received were of a kind that left him in urgent need of medical attention.
Government wont help
RTI activists find it ironic that while the government introduced the historic legislation in 2005, it is not ready to offer protection to citizens who act on the legislation. The government pretends to take action. After an RTI activist is killed, superficial efforts are made to nab assailants, says Shivji Raut, a teacher and one of Maharashtras prominent RTI activists from Satara.
RTI activists find it ironic that while the government introduced the historic legislation in 2005, it is not ready to offer protection to citizens who act on the legislation. The government pretends to take action. After an RTI activist is killed, superficial efforts are made to nab assailants, says Shivji Raut, a teacher and one of Maharashtras prominent RTI activists from Satara.
A pioneer in using RTI, Raut had exposed a property scam in Mahableshwar in which stamp duty on 114 plots on 600 acres was evaded. He has many such exposes to his credit. But he feels insecure. I have stopped my morning walks, he says.