What is the Right to Information and Why does it matter?

We have all at some point in time, over a cup of tea, cribbed about corruption in our governments. We’ve talked about big houses owned by corrupt politicians, money exchanged under the table, crores and crores worth of scams etc. But in the end, we’ve concluded that this is how it is likely to be and after all, what can we do about it?

But if you think about it, there is something you can do. As citizens of a democracy, we actually have the power to hold our government accountable. This episode talks about a significant law that gives you, the common man, the power to ask questions to your elected representative and hold him or her accountable.

Show Notes

All clips and voices used in this podcast are owned by the original creators

Links to clips used in this episode —

• RTI Movement – Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan Rajasthan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T75Eb-byrhs
• 20 years of the RTI Movement – NDTV India – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_EFCaUcNqA

Full Transcript of Episode 9

We have all at some point in time, over a cup of tea, cribbed about how the government of the day is corrupt. (Let’s make sure to say any government and not our present government in particular).

We also hear about it in the news all the time  

[We hear news clips about scams in India.]

Usually, our discussions always hit a dead end. We talk about corrupt politicians’ big houses, money exchanged under the table, crores and crores of scams, and blame the government. But in the end, we conclude that governments will always remain corrupt, and after all, what can we do about it?

But if you think about it, there is something you can do. As citizens of a democracy, we actually have the power to hold our government accountable. 

How? That’s what we are going to talk about in this episode.

If you haven’t already guessed it by now, I’m talking about the Right to Information Act or RTI – Suchna ka Adhikar. 

The Right to Information Act of 2005 gives every Indian citizen the right to demand information about the workings of any public authority. This basically means that as a citizen, you have a right to ask for information on how the government functions, what the status of different projects and schemes are etc. 

The idea behind this right is this — you ask for more information on how the government works which should ideally lead to more transparency on the government’s side, and which in-turn should ideally lead to a cleaner and more responsible government. Simply because, they know the public is watching.

Like they say in English, information is power. 

Now, when I say public authority, I mean any government office, ministry and public institution. Right from your panchayat office, all the way to the President of India — they are all liable to answer your questions. 

But, there are some government departments that are not liable to give you information. Section 24 of the act mentions a list of organizations that you can’t seek information from – like the Defence Research And Development Office (DRDO), the Border Board Development Board and the Financial Intelligence Unit of India  – basically, defense, security and intelligence is off limits. 

But other departments should answer questions you might have. In fact, RTI is considered a part of your fundamental rights!

How’s that? 

The Right to Freedom and Expression that all of us enjoy, also guarantees you the right to information. So, even if RTI is not directly listed in the constitution, it is an implied (nihit) fundamental right.

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So, what information can you ask for in an RTI? Government records, press releases, documents, memos, file notings, emails, agreements, meeting minutes — You can ask for any of these.

But there are a few no-nos here too: information that may harm the sovereignty and security of the country cannot be given out. No information about the military movements and operations of the country can be released. Also, personal information about any government persons is NOT given out. 

[We hear a news clip about an RTI]

The most famous recent example you might remember is, that Delhi University refused to disclose PM Modi’s personal information, even though it is a public university. 

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We Indians love the RTI and we actively file a lot of RTIs. Estimates say that about 4800 RTIs are filed every single day in India. 

I tried to find out which government department in India received the most number of RTIs. According to data from 2018, the finance ministry topped the list of RTIs. Clearly, the people of India want to know what happens to their money!

Diligent citizens in India have also written to the Prime Minister’s Office with interesting requests: the types of cylinders used in the PM’s kitchen, the speed of his internet connection and if the Prime Minister has read the Indian constitution. Sadly, some of these questions do not qualify as ‘public information’. For instance: we will never, in fact, know the types of cylinders used in the Prime Minister’s kitchen. 🙂

SOUND BREAK

Okay, asking for information is one thing. But what happens once you get that information?

This is where it gets interesting:

RTIs have actually helped uncover some big scams in this country. Do you remember the 2G scam?

[We hear a news clip about the 2G scam]

In 2008, Andimathu Raja, the former telecom minister, undercharged telecom companies for their 2G spectrum licences in exchange for bribes. This actually caused a loss of around 1.76 lakh crore rupees to the government. 

Time Magazine had listed this scam in their list of top 10 abuses of power in the world! 

In 2009, following a complaint from an NGO, the Central Vigilance Commission ordered the CBI to look into this. After a CBI investigation and a report drawn by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, it was found that the wrongful spectrum allocation by the telecom ministry caused a huge loss. A. Raja and the others involved were arrested.

What you might not know is that after this scam came to light, RTIs played an important role in uncovering information that revealed the exact details of the scam. Activists were prompted to find out what had happened behind the scene – and they did so through RTIs.

For example, Vivek Garg, an activist, filed an RTI to the PMO’s office in 2011. Garg received over 600 documents in response to his RTI. In them, he uncovered a controversial note from the finance ministry, stating that the 2G spectrum’s auction could have been conducted at better prices. 

Then there was also an RTI filed by Subhash Chandra Agarwal, another activist, which indicated that there was a meeting between A Raja and the then Solicitor General of India but the minutes of that meeting were not recorded. 

Let me give you another example. 

[We hear a news clip about the Adarsh housing society scam]

Remember the Adarsh Housing Society scam that led to the stepping down of Maharashtra’s erstwhile Chief Minister Ashok Chavan? That scam too was exposed through a number of RTI responses.

Adarsh society, originally, was meant to be a 6-storey structure for widows of war-heroes. But what did it end up as? A 31-storey building with flats belonging to bureaucrats and their families. 

RTI activist Simpreet Singh, a researcher at TISS and Mumbai-based activist Yogacharya Anandji noticed that something was wrong here. They filed RTIs and the responses to their RTIs revealed irregularities in the details of the land on which Adarsh Society was built. 

The land belonged to the Ministry of Defence, and not the government of Maharashtra. In fact, the society did not even have the environmental clearance to be built in the coastal region. 

It is this information that eventually led to the big expose. Apart from former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, P.V. Deshmukh – former deputy secretary of the urban development department was also arrested. Additionally, the president of the society, Brigadier M.M. Wanchu as well as the secretary, R.C. Thakur was put behind bars.

RTIs have not just helped uncover big scams. They have also been powerful tools for citizens to get information about local problems and there are many examples of this if you look.

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So how did the RTI start in India?

The story of the RTI doesn’t start in a court of law, but in a small village in Rajasthan, Beawar (ब्यावर). The year was 1996.

[We hear people chanting a slogan]

In Rajasthan’s Beawar village, dissent was brewing (असंतोष पनप / बड रहा था). Most people in the village worked as wage-labourers, but they were not being paid fair wages on time. 

Despite their frustration, instead of asking for food, shelter or wages, the workers of Beawar demanded information. 

Aruna Roy, a reputed social activist, along with Shankar Singh and Nikhil Dey, led this movement. Aruna Roy went on to become one of India’s earliest activists to shape the RTI movement.

The Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan, founded by her staged a historic long dharna for more than 40-days at Changa gate in Beawar. 

Hundreds of workers, activists and journalists gathered to demand the “muster roll” – a list of the workers engaged in labour and how much they should be paid. payment

They demanded official files of public funding, the wages (वेतन) given to public servants as well as the pension funds of these public servants. They asked for statements of expenditure, panchayati expenses, receipts and bills, to expose the wrongdoings of the Panchayat.

They knew that to ensure fair wages and rights, their greatest weapon was information. 

One of the most famous chants that rang at the dharna was “Humein nahin chahiye uncle chips, humein nahin chahiye pepsi cola, humein chahiye photocopy”. 

[We hear the voice of many people chanting a slogan.]

This dharna led to an amendment in Rajasthan’s Panchayat Raj Act in 1997, granting citizens the right to access public records. Inspired by this movement, RTI activists across the country started their fight for access to information at a national level. 

Following these protests, several activists – including journalists Prabhash Joshi and Ajit Bhattacharjea formed the National Campaign for people’s right to information (NCPRI). The NCPRI had two objectives: spread the word about access to information locally, and lobby for a national law at the centre. This campaign has been an important part of the development of the RTI in India. Together with the Press Council of India, they drafted a bill for the RTI act. Soon, state laws began forming and in 2002, India passed the Freedom of Information Act. 

But the story doesn’t end there. Soon, citizens and activists around the country started noticing gaps in this act. The problem was that the act exempted a number of public organizations from its scope, and there was no room for independent appeal or penalties for officers if they did not perform their duty. The NCPRI suggested a list of amendments to the Freedom to Information act of 2002. Following a bit of lobbying, the Prime Minister approved of these amendments. The Central Government introduced a fresh, new bill in the Parliament on December 22, 2004. This bill was then passed in 2005 as the Right To Information Act.

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Okay, history and story hogayi, now let’s come to some practical information: how do you file an RTI? A common misconception is that it entails long winded trips to a government office, but that is not true. Fortunately, like many other government applications, an RTI can be filed online as well as by post.

The first step is to identify who you should send the RTI enquiry to. Go to the RTI Online website and select the right department and follow the process to file the RTI.

If you’re going to send it by post, then address your application to the Public Information Officer (PIO) of this department.

I know you must be thinking — Who is a PIO?

Very simply put, he or she is the government officer who is in-charge of answering your RTI.

Each government office is supposed to have a PIO and depending on the size of the department, there may be more than one PIOs. Once your RTI is received by the government department, the appointed PIO will receive your application, review it and have to respond to you within 30 days. 

The PIO reports to the head of the government body, and above that is  the Chief Information Commissioner – or the CIC. 

The Central Information Commission is an organization formed under the RTI act that acts upon complaints and appeals against public authorities at the central level. Similarly, there are State Information Commissions at the state level. 

Coming back to your RTI application: it is always good to keep your complaint short, crisp, and relevant. Specify the information you need. If your application is vague, the PIO can consider it invalid. 

The PIO is supposed to respond to an RTI in 30 days or less – if they don’t, they’re penalized for it. If the PIO determines that your application pertains to your health and safety, then he or she will respond with the information within 48 hours of the receipt of the application. 

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So far I’ve spoken about the power of RTIs, their history and then the process of filing them. But let’s now talk of challenges or problems associated with RTIs in India.

One of the biggest problems with RTIs is that you often don’t get a response or at least a prompt response.

Baat yeh hai ki you can file as many RTIs as you want, but without a prompt and satisfactory response, it’s a dead end. Also, many government centres are grossly understaffed, with no PIOs to look over RTIs. 

[We hear Ravish Kumar with a news headline about the lack of PIOs in RTIs.]

In fact, the entire state of Kerala has only one Information Officer – and since 2014, the state of Andhra Pradesh has had none! So, naturally, the large backlog of applications is also the big reason for the lack of response in many applications. 

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Before I end today’s episode, I want to talk about some hard truths and realities related to RTI in India. 

[We hear news clips about the deaths of RTI activists]

Time and again, you’ve heard of RTI activists who have taken on the duty of holding the government accountable on our behalf. And for doing this, RTI activists have been facing threats to their lives for many years now. Since 2008, over 67 RTI activists have been allegedly murdered for seeking information and over 300 incidents of attacks against RTI activists have been recorded.

For instance, Nanjibhai Sondarva, an RTI activist in Gujarat was allegedly beaten to death by 6 people  for filing an RTI about the funding of a road construction project in his village. This wasn’t the first attack – about a year ago, Nanjibhai and his family were beaten up by the Sarpanch for filing an RTI to seek information about the irregularities of development work in his village. Despite a police complaint being filed, the Sarpanch went unpunished. A year later, Nanjibhai paid the ultimate price for filing a similar RTI.

In fact, his son, 17 year old Rajesh was also allegedly killed by the same people accused, who were out from jail after receiving bail.

The question is — Is simply asking for information dangerous enough to grant someone a death sentence? It’s something to think about. 

Recently, another problem has come up with regard to the act itself.

[We hear a news clip about the amendment of the RTI act]

In 2019, the RTI Act of 2005 was amended and it was decided that the Central Government can now decide the tenure and salary of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and the Information Commissioners (IC) at the central and state level. Up until this amendment,their salaries and terms were fixed and were standard. Now, the government has given itself the power to make changes to both these things.

This sounds technical, and possibly irrelevant to us, the public. However, it’s an extremely important amendment. With this bill, greater power has been handed to the Central government. The officers who look over this act are now dependent on the central government for their tenures and salaries. One wrong move, and they may lose their job. 

One of the things that makes RTI powerful is its independence from the government and only time will tell if this amendment has a lasting effect on the transparency of the RTI act. 

The question ultimately is this: A country where citizens don’t have access to information about their own government – is it democratic, after all?

That’s all I have for you in this episode. Like always, I hope this episode too has left you with some answers to questions you’ve been wondering about and provoked some new and exciting questions as well. 

I’ll be back next week with a brand new episode of Maha Bharat.

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This episode was researched and written by Anushka Mukherjee with additional research help and input by Archana Nathan, Gaurav Vaz and Sidin Vadukut (सिदिन वडुकुट)

The title track of this podcast was composed by Abhijit Nath and Madhav Ayachit (माधव अयाचित) is the audio producer.

ATS Studio is a division of All Things Small – A true stories focussed Media Company, run by Sidin Vadukut, Supriya Nair (सुप्रिया नायर), Devaiah Bopanna (देवय्या बोपन्ना), Sunil Doshi and Gaurav Vaz.