5 august 2019 http://www.openthemagazine.com 11
AngLEA BloCk on the
InformAtIon hIghwAy
P
oLItICIaNS arE USUaLLy
not fond of transparency because,
at its core, the profession is about
discreet negotiations—whether with
constituents, donors, patrons and, for
those down in the integrity scale, venal
elements that increase their shot at
power. It doesn’t look good when the
details of such transactions are revealed.
and, should voters elect them, it is once
again a series of give and take to further
interests, which sometimes align with
the country’s and often don’t.
In mature democracies, however,
leaders in power realised that transparency
is useful because absence of information
is worse—they too come under its black
hole, hostage to the handful of people
supplying them information. But if the
information pipeline feeding the public is
healthy, they also get an accurate picture of
what is going on. to look at information as
a threat is like shooting oneself in the foot
while trying to win a race and that is what
the Government is doing by amending the
right to Information act.
the objective is clearly controlling state
and Central information commissioners,
who force authorities to give information
denied to rtI applicants. this is done in
the amendment by taking over the reins
of their appointment, tenure and salary.
Placing pliant bureaucrats in positions is
how politics takes control of the executive.
and that is how it was envisaged in the
Constitution except in areas like the
judiciary and Election Commission where
institutional independence is critical.
Information commissioners were also
envisaged in that category—as judges in
the domain of information. In an article
on the legal website Livelaw, two former
Central Information Commissioners,
M Sridhar acharyulu and yashovardhan
azad, explained how the amendment
would affect the institution: ‘the need of
the hour is to strengthen the rtI regime
by posting bold, upright and competent
Commissioners who uphold the
dignity and power of the Institution.
reducing their status, salary and tenure
would be a retrograde step amounting
to creation of an rtI ministry under the
Government. the Bill therefore may kill
the rtI act itself.’
a reason the Indian bureaucracy
dislikes the rtI is that fake activists use
the information for blackmail. that is
actually a good argument for the rtI.
If there is nothing to hide, there would
be no material for blackmail. and any
information that a blackmailer can
get is also available for the public. one
of the defences the BJP has put out for
the amendment is that already a lot
of information has been proactively
made available on Government
websites showing good intention and
also making rtI redundant. But the
Government does not get to choose
what it wants the public to know except
in matters like military secrets. In
everything else, encouraging access to
information has only one consequence:
better governance. India has a long
history of institutions being destroyed
for political convenience. It would be a
pity if rtI became one more on that list. n‘The truth is always
more heroic than
the hype’
Jessica Lynch
formerussoldierWORd’s WORThthe government shoots itself in the foot
with the rtI amendment
By Madhavankutty pillai
hyPE
Something unusual occurred
recently. Social media feeds began
to gush with patriotic fervour as
people—from Bollywood celebrities
and politicians to godmen—
showered the assamese sprinter
Hima Das with glowing tributes. Das
won five gold medals in back-to-back
sprint events in less than a month.
Some of these tributes were also
accompanied by a video, later found
to be a recording of a much older race
(the 400-m sprint at the IaaF World
U20 Championships last year). Das
must have been shocked at what
had hit her. as those who follow
track and field events have been
warning, all this hype is misplaced.
None of these races are considered
‘world-standard’. two of them were
ranked ‘F’, the lowest, according to
the International association of
athletics Federations, and the other
three were ranked the second lowest,
‘E’. Das’ timings are also nowhere
near her best. But you can’t expect
people uninterested in sport but
eager for any news of an Indian
victory to understand that. nId EAs