Right to Information Act ( RTI ):

RTI has become a craze in cities and towns. Yes, many of the cases filed are frivolous. However, the empowerment through this Act, one and all, even the lowly persons, to question the mighty Government, to make the Government squirm and sometimes to rectify an injustice done, et all are welcome developments. Yes, many of the retired Government people with a grouse against the erstwhile Departments in which they served, would be raising many a question, not always for redress of this or that grievance, but to assert their right. It is also a heady time passing activity for many who may have nothing much to do. Yes, their activity would occasionally lead to correcting a wrong. But only rarely. Because bureaucrats, even when their actions do injustice to somebody, are capable of covering their tracks smoothly.

RTI Act has been widely acclaimed as a right step, both from the points of view of rectifying some mistake done by Government, and also unmasking Government action / information, which were hitherto largely shrouded in secrecy.

But there is a down-side to this development. Increasingly time of babus in some of the Government Departments is spent in furnishing the information sought and more than that on obfuscating the truth by vague replies. This is similar to Parliament Questions, on which bureaucrats spend lot of time in preparing clever replies. In both cases, bureaucrats spend much time in determining what information should be given. Information has to be brief, truthful but at the same time revealing as little as can to get over the situation. The position can be succinctly explained by the following example. A Minister, traveling with the Secretary in car in a village lost the way. The Minister stopped the car and asked the villager walking on the road, ‘ where am I.’ The villager replied, ‘ You are in your car.’ The Minister turned to his Secretary and said that ‘the answer is in best Parliamentary tradition. It is truth, it is brief, and it is not giving away any information.’ Both in respect of Parliament questions and information to be given under RTI, alas, the above would be the approach of bureaucracy. But my point is that since giving information under these two routes would take precedence over any other activity of the bureaucrats, they would have still less time to attend to other matters of importance.
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