AN INDICTMENT OF RACIAL INEQUALITY
The United States (US) has plunged into chaos. At the root of it is the horrific killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The incident has sparked protests across the country, with a nationwide spontaneous civil liberties movement asking for justice and reforms.
This week, we recommend by Ta-nehisi Coates. Written as a letter to his 15-year-old son, the book is a powerful and searing indictment of race in the US. Coates draws from his own childhood and adult life, and that of a friend who was killed by a policeman, to underline how deeply embedded racial prejudice is in the country. Coates has a clinical and deeply pessimistic outlook — of how the foundation of the US is white supremacy, and the degrading of the African-american body and experience, and how this will not change. He finds a way to depict the pain, the sadness, the rage at the injustice in his society in a deeply lyrical and poignant manner. As Toni Morrison said, with this book, Coates emerged as a true intellectual inheritor of James Baldwin.
Book: Between the World and Me Author: Ta-nehisi Coates
Year: 2015
In the lethal jaws of a pandemic, when lives and livelihoods are at stake, the information law of a democracy is expected to live up to its responsibilities — to empower the citizens and to ensure transparency and accountability. Free flow of information is an essential component of crisis management. And this is a crisis like no other.
However, during these trying times, instead of proving its rigour and tenacity, the Right to Information (RTI) regime failed to deliver. People merely turned into passive consumers of media reports, TV debates, advertisements, and press releases churned out by various departments which cannot replace the regime of transparency upheld by the RTI Act. The need of the hour in such adversity is to share data nationwide and reply to RTI queries to clarify doubts, dissipate insecurity, and bolster people’s faith in the information system.
After the lockdown was imposed on March 25, the Central Information Commission (CIC) was perhaps the only one out of the total 29 commissions in the country to start work on
April 20. As per a telephonic survey conducted by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), during the first and second phase of the lockdown, the State Information Commissions (SICS) just remained dormant.
Information on critical issues eluded the public. A query, under the RTI, seeking details of PM Cares fund was denied by the Prime Minister’s Office, stating it is not a public authority and the State Bank of India refused to give these details on the ground that it was third party information held under fiduciary capacity. This violates the basic axiom that the public must have access to the details of a public fund. The CIC, in two separate decisions, had directed that information to queries on PM and CM Relief Funds must be given. The matter is pending in the high court since 2018 but no stay was given on CIC’S decision.
Some other queries have fared no better. A query filed with the department of financial services (DFS) seeking details of disclosure of details of actual access to PM Garib Kalyan Yojna by beneficiaries has taken a rollercoaster ride from DFS to the ministry of rural development to the department of economic affairs, back to DFS and again to rural development. While RTI queries regarding the list of district-wise coronavirus disease (Covid-19) treatment facilities were being transferred from one department to another, the health minister issued a press release on the nationwide health care facilities.
Tens of thousands of migrant labours, rendered jobless and homeless, walked on the highways and railway tracks towards their homes in the blazing summer heat with their children and humble belongings. Many perished, unsung and unlamented, on their way. However, in reply to a query under the RTI Act, the office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC), under the Union ministry of labour and employment, claimed that it does not have state-wise and district-wise data with respect to the migrant labourers. This, despite the CLC directing the regional heads based in 20 centres across the country to enumerate every migrant worker stranded due to the lockdown within three days during the second week of April. The CIC has directed CLC on May 27 to post the information on the website.
A few videos showing police brutality in enforcing restrictions on people’s movement had gone viral. The citizens need to know the truth and action taken against those policemen. Such information can be available only if a robust regime of RTI prevails and the relevant portals are updated with disclosures.
During the Covid-19 scare, bewildered citizens deserve to be taken into confidence. They have the right to know more about the coun