POINT-TO-PONDER: Saving RTI also means appointing right people to SIC
Mr Naveen Tiwari
bantus_interiors@...
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Comment: Mr Naveen Tiwari has rightly highlighted critical damages
impeding RTI movement which will become all the more vital in the
long run. While the entire thrust was to save RTI Act, Governments
have been making adhoc appointments of people not-necessarily apt for
the job, to Information Commission. If we dont stop ignoring this, we
might land up with another ineffective institution to deal with. In an open
letter to Magsaysay Awardee and RTI Activist Arvind Kejriwal, Naveen Tiwari has
definitely thrown the spotlight on a vital missing link - THERE IS NO WELL LAID
OUT POLICY TO APPOINT RIGHTEOUS AND APT PEOPLE TO SIC. Read more...


……… E X C E R P T S ……

STATE GOVERNMENT MAY RENDER THE WHOLE ACT INEFFECTIVE BY APPOINTING
THE WRONG PEOPLE AS INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS

TURNING AN AQUARIUM INTO FISH SOUP IS SIMPLE. TURNING THE FISH SOUP
BACK INTO AN AQUARIUM IS NOT. FOR THE EX- COMMUNIST COUNTRIES,
STABILIZING ECONOMIES AND INTRODUCING MARKET MECHANISMS HAS PROVED
THE EASY BIT. REMAKING PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, AND MAKING THEM CLEAN AND
EFFICIENT, IS MUCH HARDER TO DO AND MEASURE - (The Economist)
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Dear Arvindji,

I congratulate you on getting the Magsaysay. Belated greetings though.
I don't know if you remember my last email regarding the state of RTI
Movement in Uttar Pradesh and the way state government may render the
whole
Act ineffective by appointing the wrong people as information
commissioners.

Although you did acknowledge my mail and appreciate the point I made
in my letter we could not take the issue further. I realize how busy
you must be and understand your preoccupation but my own role in the
whole movement is now at a point where I have to take a decisive step
as to which course I should take; the one in which I am a part of the
group led by sandeep and guided by you and arunaji or go alone in my
own small way and do what I feel is more crucial need of the hour.
Let me explain myself once again:

Although it is very important to jointly fight against the proposed
amendment of RTI
I think it is equally important, if not more, that we see to it that
by the time this fight is over with some success, the governments of
the states do not damage the institution of SIC.
I don't know about the success stories in delhi and other states,
even Lucknow will have some to boast about but these are exceptions.
Look at the simple scenario: if the 1st application for information
doesn't get the right response and the appeal also ends up at the
dead end then a person has the only recourse of going to SIC with
final appeal. Imagine the SIC is just like another bigger version of
Lokayukta having a bunch of ineffective incompetent and callous
appointees drawing fat salaries and almost static for five years.
That would mean that people aggrieved by the decision of the SIC will
have the only option of going to the High court? How many ordinary
citizens can do that? And why people like me who can afford to go to
the high court will waste five months time running between a dead
pillar and a dead post?
The huge number of frustrated applicants will end up disillusioning
people about the effectiveness of your weapon -RTI.

Although the act was drafted by intelligent people who thought that
if the chief minister
And his colleague cabinet minister tries to bungle with the
appointment of information commissioners at least the leader of
opposition will foil that attempt and public interest will be
protected. But look at the situation in Uttar Pradesh! Both Mulayam
Singh Yadav and Lalji Tandon have no qualms about appointing buffoons
for the job of CIC and IC. And even the Governor is giving his
consent to this open abuse of the norms and propriety as well as the
spirit of the act.

Let me again draw a simple parallel example. The best of laws can
not get a person Justice if the judge is corrupt or incompetent or
both. I hope I have been able to bring the point home? This is the
reason why I have been crying my heart out right from the beginning
during the meetings at lucknow but somehow I get the feeling that the
social activist also gets carried away with activism of a popular
kind. If it is a war it has to be fought on many levels. You cant
win a war by defeating the enemy in the air and getting defeated on
the field because the infantry was in the barracks.

I came across a very interesting passage in The Economist which I
quote:

"Turning an aquarium into fish soup is simple. Turning the fish soup
back into an aquarium is not. For the ex- communist countries,
stabilizing economies and introducing market mechanisms has proved
the easy bit. Remaking public institutions, and making them clean and
efficient, is much harder to do and measure."

If we let the politicians corrupt the institution of SIC it will be
irreversible and the whole movement of RTI will fail. As the Russian
proverb says, a fish tends to rot from the head.(I quote from the
same article in economist).

Please let us give it urgent attention that it requires lest mulayam
singh will appoint all his stooges as Information commissioners and
strangulate the newborn. Its same story of kansa hounding the avtar
Krishna or king herrod hunting for the child jesus who would be the
savior.

Thanks,

Naveen Tiwari
Email: bantus_interiors@...