The Brave Pedestrian

July 25, 2009: In this article, I am trying to clear the mental clutter that we passionate RTI applicants and apellants create with wishful thinking and righteous anger. My experience is limited and my knowledge is admittedly partial, but I’m doing my best to be objective. Shailesh Gandhi’s insights and mental discipline have helped me immensely. I am not claiming any expertise and authority, but only some common sense.   Shailesh Gandhi once gave me two examples for how to ask for information: a) ‘Why have I not got a ration card?’ is not asking for information; but ‘I want the progress of my file relating to my application for a ration card’ is asking information. b) ‘ Why have I not got admission?’ is not asking for information, whereas ‘I want the cutoff marks at which admission was given’ is asking for information. Under Chapter 2 of RTI Act 2005 titled “Right to Information and Obligations of Public Authorities”, Section 3 states: “Subject to the provisions of this ...

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:   A bureaucratic structure that was, as Wajahat Habibullah noted, suited more for colonial slave India than free democratic India 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 Our judiciary, with its archaic privileges and untrammeled powers. And now it is like a sch...