There are so many issues that bug me no end and equal number that I wish to write about to vent my disgust. But the moment you delay writing, you actually deny yourself this fundamental right to express – write - as the thoughts are ephemeral and those that you would have liked to crystalize, vaporize. Spur of the moment is key. Such is my experience and wonder about others’.
The fundamental right to expression! Today we take this as a given. We were lucky that our constitution was born in an age, when this right was recognized unchallenged. But the Bill of Rights introduced through an amendment to the Yankee constitution happened in the late 18th century, and although the yankee version was preceded by the French one during the revolution, the yankee one too gained credence and legitimacy not without struggle and bloodshed.
Compared to that, an equally revolutionizing right to information found its way in India as an act of Parliament in June 2005 relatively peacefully. Similarly, we hope that the Jan Lokpal will find its way into the country, again without bloodshed albeit after half a century of delay and deferment.
But the issue is not of the letter but of the spirit. I don’t think that the government has been able to imbibe the spirit of the RTI although I must admit, it complies commendably well with the letter. The spirit is - as much information as is reasonably possible shall be shared with the people – and mostly suo-motto. The time allowed for sharing this information is very tight and consequence of failing to share the sought information by an officer with the people dire. Interestingly, the procedure for seeking information has been unbelievably simplified. This most un-government like but true.
Nevertheless, the spirit of the act is yet to sink in the mandarins, who even today, try their best not to share than to share. Why? It is the culture of governance that the country has been subjected to from eons of time gave rise and then perpetuated this mentality. If the Mughals were trying to impose their culture as must as governance on to the Indian subjects, the British were trying to impose the most unfavorable economic policies, although not so much culture. But they did fall a victim of what most rulers do, even if not imposing, trying to establish the superiority of their culture over that of the subjugated. This is not only a common mistake but also a misconceived strategy that most hegemonizing nation states adopt – rule by aura and awe of racial and cultural supremacy.
In India particularly, since the British were chased out not alone by the resistance and revolution of the then 30 crore people of India, but also due to the setting fatigue and increasing frailty of the British Empire post WW II, debilitating their ability to hold on to the jewel in its crown – India; the Indians got self governance sooner than they expected. The elite of the society quickly stepped into the shoes of the gora saabs to provide good governance. The governance was seamless, unlike in many African countries where post independence there was anarchy, or as you will see in the Arabic world, where even today the biggest fear will be anarchy after the collapse of the regimes. However, the mentality of this Indian elite who stepped to provide stability and seamless governance post British-era, was not very different from the goras.
Today you will find increasing number of officers in the Indian bureaucracy feeling obliged to behave as the friendly face of the state technically by / for and of the people, the only distinction between them and those they are supposed to serve being a qualifying exam, yet many others sneer upon such colleagues for their lack of officer like qualities – OLQs. These OLQs are precisely not mixing, not being approachable, not being amenable or receptive to logic and embracing 24x7 an air of superciliousness.
So, an RTI application is often seen by the supercilious babus as an act of defiance, as erosion of their erstwhile unbridled and untamed authority and by some of more feudal descent even as increasingly imminent futility of being in the bureaucracy. This accentuates the mentality to not conceal so much, as withhold information. Mind you, the mentality of the minions of government is not to conceal but withhold information, as sharing seems to subject themselves to bourgeoisie scrutiny or Marxian triumphalism, which is unacceptable to their saheb mentality. So they seek refuge in the fine print, like not being obliged to respond to applications in question formats etc. But it is in our hands to change this attitude, and we all must set ourselves to doing so.
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