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'More the citizens use RTI, stronger the Act gets'
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SME Times News Bureau | 17 Nov, 2020
Despite attempts to dilute the Right To Information Act (RTIA) the most
recent being in 2019, the stronger it got as more and more citizens
invoked it. Once a law hits the ground, it attains a life of its own and
a constitutionally-granted right cannot be withdrawn but can only be
"consciously blunted".
The fact that it has been used 24.4
million times between 2005-16 shows that "it is now in the hands of the
citizens and citizens groups to use RTI and strengthen the legal
regime", says a deeply-researched book that contends a "tipping point"
had been reached that led to its enactment and the only way now is --
forward.
"In my view when a law hits the ground it attains a life
of its own. Despite these problems and dilutions, RTIA has been
extensively used across the country (24.4 million between 2005-2016
according to a modest estimate). My own study of the state of Bihar
shows that against all odds, RTIA as an institution has substantially
progressed, evident in extensive use of RTI. Based on these field
insights, I am inclined to argue that institutional change still holds
valid, as the recent dilutions have not countermanded the norm change
from the previously locked in norm of 'secrecy' to 'openness'," Himanshu
Jha, who teaches at the Department of Political Science at Heidelberg
University, told IANS in an interview of his book, "Capturing
Institutional Change -- The Case of the Right to Information Act in
India" (OUP).
"A constitutionally-granted right such as the RTI,
cannot be withdrawn but can be consciously blunted. This is evident in
the recent amendments, which do not directly alter the power of the
information commissioners, but introduce changes in the service rules
and salaries of the commissioners with a clear attempt to impede the
law.
"Clearly, the stage after institutional change is riddled by
yet another kind of ideational contestation. Relationship between the
information givers and information seekers is often tumultuous and
multi-hued. For example, on the one hand the legal tool of RTI
successfully reveals the cost of foreign travels by the Prime Minister
and the council of ministers, while on the other RTI faces a negative
response on the educational degrees of the PM and some the cabinet
ministers," Jha maintained.
Nevertheless, the pressure and the
scrutiny on the state to disclose information by its citizens "could not
have been possible in the absence of institutional change that occurred
in 2005. Veritably, the state itself reveals crucial information about
the processes within the state - such disclosure was unimaginable in the
pre-RTI period", he said.
For instance, the Department of
Personnel and Training (DOPT) that administers the act recently made
public the file notings showing that the government had proposed an
ordinance to fulfil the objective of the RTI Amendment Bill 2019, "a
policy initiative not accepted by the Prime Minister's Office. Such
information from within the state would not have been possible prior to
the RTI Act", Jha said.
Now that the law is in operation "it is
also in the hands of the citizens and citizens groups to use RTI and
strengthen the legal regime" as has happened in Rajasthan, where the
state and the social actors "have ideationally collaborated to
conceptualize a 'Jan suchana portal' (public information portal) and
mobile app that gives access to real time information about various
public policy programmes in the state.
Similarly, citizens groups
such as the NCPRI (National Campaign for People's Right to
Information), in response to the recent amendments, have launched a
campaign to "Use RTI, To save RTI", urging citizens to constantly seek
information from the state, Jha pointed out
To this extent, the
book captures a riveting process of an "ideational churning" between the
nested norm of secrecy and the emerging norm of openness. The
historical and contemporary material used in the book reveals that this
process had started right since independence, and that this long-drawn
churning of 'ideas' had an incremental impact on state thinking.
Incremental weight of earlier ideas reached a tipping point in 2005.
"Similar
to the ideational churning that I have traced in this book, yet another
churning is taking place between the information seekers and
information givers. The impact of the 2019 amendment will have to seen
to ascertain the long-term consequences of these amendments. Indeed,
previous attempts of dilution have not deterred the citizens from using
RTIA. The more citizens use it, the stronger will be the RTI Act," Jha
asserted.
How did this book come about?
The idea for the
book emerged around 2012 but the seeds were sown in early 2000s when he
was involved in the development sector in India.
"My work
(especially between 2004-2011) focused on monitoring the institutions of
governance. This work was driven by the logic that institutions are
vehicles that carry the governance agenda forward and, therefore, it was
important to monitor these institutions. In my view seeking
accountability from the state was paramount.
"My engagement with
the development sector coincided with the time of considerable
social-economic and political change in India. On the one hand country
was experiencing growth, while on the other plethora of legally mandated
social rights were extended to the citizens. These changes at many
levels were institutional.One such right was the Right to Information
Act 2005 which provided a legal regime to the citizens to seek
information from the state ushering in an institutional change in the
transparency regime in India. No such right or even policy existed
before RTI Act.
"The processes and information within the state
were shrouded in secrecy and limited to the corridors of public
authorities. On numerous occasions as a practitioner I would also engage
with this emerging legal regime and put into practice this significant
right. In fact, I recall that at one of point of time I co-organised a
workshop of RTI users from across the country to listen and to learn
from their revealing experiences with what at that time was a new law.
My book opens up by providing one such fascinating story of RTI use by a
rickshaw puller in the state of Bihar," Jha explained.
Not surprisingly, his next task is taking his work forward.
"I
wish to further expand my current work on the institutional change and
examine the extent of institutional change in terms of its progression
and deepening. I call this stage institutional progression -- a step
beyond institutional change. My initial field-work in Bihar has
interestingly shown that institutional progression is inextricably
linked to the local politics. Field insights show that RTI has opened a
new space for accountability between state and society giving rise to a
new form of elite agency, whose practitioners I term as 'agents of
accountability'," Jha said.
Noting that he wishes to expand on
this work to include more sub-national states in India and further
include cross-country comparisons to examine the intricate relationship
between the politics of accountability and democratic deepening, he
said: Transparency and accountability is paramount for the working of
liberal democracies. In this context, RTIA re-defines the
state-citizenship linkages in new ways."
Building on his previous
work on this significant right, he wants to initiate a sub-national
comparative study on the patterns of RTI use by citizens.
"While
existing literature broadly examines the structural elements of the RTI
implementation, there is a dearth of scholarship on the of RTI use by
the citizens. Who uses the RTI? What kind of information is sought and
why? Has the change in legal norm also resulted in related behavioral
change at the state level? This study will throw light on the state-
citizen linkages through the lens of the politics of transparency and
accountability. At a broader level this state-citizen interaction will
demonstrate and at the same time interrogate the process of democratic
deepening.
"At the moment I am also expanding my research on
state capacity where I seek to answer a central question: What engenders
state capacity especially in a weak state? The findings of this
research project will be instructive in providing a policy roadmap for
the conditions under which an effective state capacity can be developed
in developing and poor parts of the world," Jha concluded.
Given that the book is an eye-opener for political and governance experts, there's certainly much more to look forward to.
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