The Union Cabinet has decided to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005 to exclude file notings, Cabinet papers and examination answer sheets from the Act’s purview. This would leave the Act toothless. An act which in Arvind Kejriwal‘s words is taking India “from being a representative democracy to a participatory democracy.” The Act has already seen many success stories and has become a nightmare for the inefficient and slimy bureaucrats and politicians. The Act has empowered the citizens with the right to know of how the decisions in their name are being taken and how pubic money is being spent. It has the potential to stem corruption.
Perhaps, afraid of its widespread implications on their nefarious activities the bureaucracy and the legislature have hatched a plot to blur the transparency which the Act had provided to our red-taped archaic administrative machinery. It’s now a fight between the rights of a citizen and the whims and fancies of the administrative functionaries. We shouldn’t let the amendment to the Act to be tabled in the Parliament. Though activists believe that the widespread protests will prevent that from happening, but Sandeep Pandey says amidst the confidence, “You never know how shameless they can get.”
The internet is synonymous with free flow of information, and it’s time we take this protest online, via the modern-day voice of the net-savvy citizen – the blog. Let us not let them shame our democracy.
Put this up on your blog/website or wherever you feel like (Original image courtesy Sakshi Trust)
Links:
* About the Right to Information Act
* Background and Perspective
* The RTI Act, 2005 [.doc 379 KB]
* Aruna Roy on the proposed amendment
and they still call India a democracy: the largest democracy!!!
Has online protests been of any consequence?
<>Dwaipayan<> Thankfully we are still better than a lot of others.<>djk<> An online protest especially in a country like India with low PC penetration and even lower internet connectivity has limited significance. But that shouldn’t deter us from spreading the message. The online community may not topple governments, but can at least create aware citizens who can stand up for their rights.
djk and soumyadip;i think we should take part in online protests, we should do so for ourselves.to be clear to our conscience…nothing can change the bl**dy govt’s mind except risk of loosing power
p.s., soumyadip,thankfully we are still better than some..i couldn’t dare to think what would happen if we were at their place