The Right to Information Act has been hollowed out by Indian governments over the years – most recently by way of amendments to the law through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
Transparency activists and legal experts have warned that India’s new Digital Personal Data Protection Act bars the disclosure of personal information about public officials even on the grounds of larger public interest.
The RTI is a very, very strong weapon, said veteran activist and retired bureaucrat Aruna Roy, who led the movement that resulted in the passage of the Right to Information Act in 2005. “And it’s this fear of the weapon that makes them all want to destroy the RTI.”
In this special episode with author and peace worker Harsh Mander, recorded in Tillonia village in Rajasthan, days before Roy’s 80th birthday on June 26, she reflects on the many struggles that shaped her life. They discuss the challenges before Indian democracy, and the moral and political crises India faces today.
In their conversation, they talk about the legacy of the RTI movement and how it transformed the relationship between the citizen and the Indian state to one of equals. “What a change that was,” she notes.
The RTI brought in a very small equation, said Roy. It may be tall claim, she says, but like all the greatest scientific equations, it’s very simple: “everything in the government is mine because the Constitution says, in its Preamble, that I am sovereign, and if I am sovereign, I have a right to know what is happening because you’re dealing with my money.”
The fight to keep the RTI alive is also a fight against data collection and data wars, she said. From the education system to consumption and lifestyle-driven debt among families, Roy said the battle is very dense. We have to desegregate these battles and fight many small battles, she tells Mander.
But Gandhi’s wisdom about the fighting the “little battles” is Roy’s guiding light. “Fight the little battles, lest you forget how to fight,” she says. “Who knows, one day multiple small battles may one day become a large battle.”
The name of Karwan e Mohabbat’s Yeh Daag Daag Ujala series is a tribute to the iconic poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
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