Will RTI panel be a constitutional body?

Sunte hain ishq naam ke guzre hain eik buzurg/ ham sab mureed unke ushi silsile se hain (We have heard an elderly gentleman by the name love has passed/ We are bounded to him by the same tradition).

These lines of Firaq Gorakhpuri can be most aptly put to use on the superannuation of Ranjit Singh Pankaj, the UP state chief information commissioner along with UP SIC Gyan Prakash Maurya on June 30.

My experience of working with the UP CIC, in the past six months, since all the eight of us were administered oath under him on January 7, was that of an elderly comrade. He was outstandingly courteous, humble, friendly, a workaholic and was found to be one who would always set an example and lead from the front. He was suave, gentle and, at the same time, tough.

The first stint thankfully was to work directly under him. For the first five days we were under his direct tutelage. It was a workshop of its kind. The lessons he gave by his use of words, body-language and his keenness to weed out from the layers of questionnaires, set forth by the applicants, towards the ultimate satisfaction of the plaintiff was all a watchful glee.

The RTI Act 2005 as a matter of f act, i s essentially, an embodiment of people’s power, which of course, could only become so, for it was not drafted by the bureaucracy, but conceived and conceptualised by activists a la Aruna Roy and Arvind Kejriwal.

The steel-frame system, inherited from Lord Macaulay, in fact, took more than five decades to foster its chinks to help empower every citizen down to the lowest denomination of the state.

The significance of the superannuation ceremony was thus made clear. Never make an applicant feel dreary and round-up the officials, for it is more than clear, that only the distressed and the wronged are the first amongst equals to seek an RTI application, notwithstanding the ‘neo-RTI terrorists’ too.

There is no dearth of examples that many RTI seekers have overnight turned blackmailers as well. But, as goes the dictum: Even one who is in jail has the right to seek information, and that too a hundred times.

As all eight of us listened with rapt attention, a message was honed to all and sundry — Empower the seat of the commissioner, who is a quasi-judge, with upright orders which are not only to be seen but also felt. Never let fatigue enter into the workmanship and let information be disbursed at the earliest.

The spirit of the RTI-2005 which had thus been kindled nine years ago, nevertheless, is still in its infancy and fledgling to an extent, in the sense, that our constitution under the Fundamental Rights, in Article 19 1 (A) enshrines freedom of speech and expression, which in fact is a torchbearer of transparency.

And rightfully, the Preamble of RTI Act-2005 also very clearly states “democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning.”

But, then, we also have the Official Secrets Act-1923 etc . Whether the Official Secrets Act-1923 is an infringement on our fundamental rights or not has been long debated but RTI Act-2005, for sure, is something put in-between the two, with the nation’s interest to always remain supreme.

Thus, the march for transparency has still a long way to go, as the real moment of cheer for the RTI-Act 2005 will only be when the RTI commission becomes a constitutional body. Unless that happens the dream will remain unfulfilled. Is the Central government listening?