Right to Information in India: Deriving Sustenance from Ancient Indian Culture & Promoting Democracy in India-Juniper Publishers
Juniper Publishers-Social Sciences
Abstract
In fact, transparency or openness providing
information and knowledge about the state and government is a primary
and natural requisite for a democratic state like India which derives
its roots from the ancient India’s distinguished cultural identity based
upon eternal moral values and universal-ethical ideas and ideals, that
altogether pave the way for arousal and inculcating of feelings of
righteousness, sincerity, devotion and gratitude etc. in one’s heart or
mind for realizing his or her responsibility and accountability both in
temporal as well as spiritual life in the true spirit of the term.
While such sincere and devotional imperatives in the
material life of an individual life may lead one towards sublimation,
when applied on a society which is an expanded form of an individual,
can pave the way for creation of a perfect or just social and political
order i.e. from the erstwhile prevailing system of government to good
governance. And that appeals to the people at large who wish to know
about the society as well as polity in the temporal world and about
their individual selves and the ultimate purpose of human life and
divinity in the spiritual world.
Keywords: Culture; Democracy; Accountability; Transparency; Information
Introduction
While the ever-rising wave of popular awareness
towards one’s self and consequent desire to participate and share in the
social, political and economic life of a country taken together is
causing widening and deepening of democracy all over the world, the so
expanding democracy is again rekindling the quest for information as
well as knowledge among all including common masses to lead towards
self-creation of a perfect cause and effect relationship between the two
- information and democracy.
As obvious, people need information for obtaining
better access or greater knowledge of the working of the state or
political system so as to accomplish the best of their political selves
including all other aspects of life as well, they’re so-accrued
information and knowledge will not only consolidate the spirit of
democracy by arousing their common desire of participation into the
day-to-day political affairs of the state but will also strengthen and
consolidate the deep rooted ancient cultural moorings and traditional
ethos spawning its glorious past evolving through over hundreds of
thousands years of antiquity. And that injects strength and obvious
sustenance to the so-evolved traditional cultural heritage and gives
vigour & vitality and justification and substantiation to its
continuing utility and relevance.
Obviously the glorious past of a country pertains to
its commitment for upholding eternal, immutable, universal and
ethical-moral moral values because these are the offshoots of the nature
- or the divine commandments or pious prescriptions of the almighty God
- which bespeak of both internal and external balance and all that is
beautiful, good and pleasure- giving in the metaphysical and spiritual
sense, thereby establishing a happy union not only within different
constituents of nature itself but also between the nature and human
beings too.
Hence the Right to Information has not only its
temporal connotation and significance as regards expansion and deepening
of democracy as well as ensuring transparency, responsibility and
accountability in this material world but it may reasonable be infused
with the potential to engender the metaphysical instincts and such
spiritual inquisitiveness among people at large and even among a normal
human-being who can thus ensure one’s both ends - temporal and spiritual
- meeting in a normal course of leading his or her usual life, as well
explained by a Church father St. Aquinas in the 13th Italy, passing
through the deep pangs and volcanic intellectual upheaval of the first
renaissance and consequent reformation in Europe.
Thus the much talked about Right to Information in
India has had the unique distinction of heralding the country into an
era of not only strengthening and consolidating Indian democracy in the
country but also engendering to thoroughly revive the distinctive and
unparalleled ancient Indian cultural attributes and such humanistic
traits of eternal and moral significance which
are unfortunately fading and getting diluted to become a little
blurred and also meaningless thereby losing its true meaning due
to powerful onslaught of the West’s fast expanding materialism
and consumer culture including the prevailing extremely vulgar
depiction on the internet in all over the world.
Right to Information
It is in this respect the successful passage of the much-awaited
Right to Information Bill - 2005, had created a land mark in the
history of Indian democracy though many countries have already
passed this right as a law in the past decades even much prior to
India. While this act was to ensure transparency, responsibility
and also accountability besides ensuring greater interaction
and deeper penetration of common man or people at large into
the functioning of public or government authority, thereby
consolidating the pith and content of the democracy in India,
but its actual practice since its inception has not yet achieved the
desired result of building a well-informed and exploitation-free
society in India, particularly because there are still a huge crowd
of illiterate and uneducated persons in the country who always
wish to remain disinterested in knowledge seeking exercise and
hard work besides the Indian government’s continuing adherence
with its anachronistic practice of using and upholding the British
government’s logic of official secrets act on grounds of maintaining
social solidarity, good health and national security.
Although “democracy” is the best form of government in allover
the world, but its long practice has proved it quite otherwise,
particularly in India where the socio-political system is still
working in a feudal - monarchic manner even after seven decades
of its successful experiment with democracy. In fact, the system is
very haughty, arrogant, insensitive and even hostile to the desires
and aspirations of the common people who are hapless lots as
against privileged few as Rajas, Rajkumars, Rajkumaris, Kunwars,
Nawabs etc. who still run parallel governments in their areas and
grace their people (as loyal subjects) as their ancestors used to do
during their sovereign rule before independence of India.
Added to this is the unholy alliance between money and muscle
power and also politicians and criminals and also terrorists, besides
rampant corruption in the entire polity as well as society leading
to a grave crisis of character in the Indian society as the former
Chief Election Commissioner Late T, N. Seshan used to worry over
fast erosion of classical ethical moral values among Indians as well
as in the Indian Society. Obviously Indian democracy continues to
be in shambles despite being based upon the strong foundations
of ancient India’s distinguished rich traditional culture heritage.
India’s Cultural Uniqueness
Perhaps no other country in the world occupies such a unique
and distinct cultural identity as that of Bharat (India), which has
all along been the focus of spiritual and metaphysical attraction
and inquiry as well as academic investigation for all the grown up
and advanced European and American countries since the dawn
of civilization. When a highly acclaimed Indologist and a noted
historian, A L Basham [1] attempted to study the historical and
cultural uniqueness of ancient Bharat or India since ancient times,
he perhaps became spell bound and got overwhelmed to write the
title of his study as a famous book The Wonder that was India.
While there are other ancient civilizations like the
Mesopotamian, Chinese, Greek etc. to name a few, yet the
unparalleled traits and all-pervading remarkable features
having global vision - particularly internalizing, practising and
also upholding eternal moral values and universal ideals like
‘vasudhaiv-kutumbakam’ or ‘sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu
niramayh…’ and ‘sahanavavatu, sahanaubunaktu, sahaviryam
karvavahai, tejasvinavadhitamastu, ma vidwishvahai’, (May God
protect us both; may God nourish us both; may we work together
with energy and vigour; may our study be enlightening, not
giving rise to hostility) and ‘aasharma vyavastha’ or ‘purushartha
chatushtaya’ or ‘unity in diversity’ etc. - of Indian culture
emphasizing internal as well external balance and harmony and
also a sense of belongingness of all living or non-living creatures
with each other and also among themselves on the mother Earth
while expanding to the entire cosmos, are some of the rarest of the
rare features which are unavailable in any other civilization. While
the entire cosmos is still unknown to us yet the two fundamental
elements in the world - as a part of the cosmos - viz. spirit and
matter constitute the primary units of enquiry or analysis, either
rational-objective or subjective-faithful. In fact, both spirit and
matter control life and the quality of life depend on these both;
but no quality is permanent, and it continuously undergoes
transformations.
Similarly, human life consists of two aspects: spirit and matter
- or spiritual and temporal. In fact, it is the Indian philosophy
which associates each body with the eternal soul. What is perhaps
the most distinguishing feature of the ancient Indian culture is its
emphasis on gyaan or knowledge - or know thyself - which can
only liberate an individual self-i.e. the soul, from the mundane
world to get union with the Eternal Self or the Supreme Divinity
or God or the Brahman. Thus, Indian culture lays emphasis on
acquiring knowledge - as the highest end of human life to ensure
one’s salvation. The human life, while itself demands knowledge
of the temporal self and the material world to achieve worldly
pleasures and progress on the one hand, it ultimately craves for
true knowledge or the spiritual knowledge or Theology to realize
the supreme end of this worldly existence, on the other.
While the supreme end of the human life upon earth is
salvation, it may possibly be accomplished in this material
world with the help of understanding theology or philosophy
or metaphysical discourses meant to explain the desired course
towards salvation. Thus, the human life is an endless journey to
acquire or gain knowledge from the material world to the spiritual
world - or from the worldly knowledge to spiritual knowledge - to
finally attain divinity or salvation. As obvious, perhaps there exists
none other such a humane and humanitarian culture in the world
than that in India.
As human beings undergo this journey in the world while living
on the earth which is organized in the form of states; and that is
described as the best political organization or school or koinonia
(in Greek) - a beautiful partnership in all best human qualities - in
the unforgettable words of the great political philosopher Aristotle
of ancient Greece. And out of all available political organizations,
democracy is undoubtedly the best form of government, though
it is indeed a way of life as well. In fact, it was very much praised
as a ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’
by an ancient Greek philosopher Cleon, whose immortal words
were later reiterated by a former & highly revered and popular
American president Abraham Lincoln. A famous English novelist
and thinker George Orwell had also eulogized democracy as ‘ours
is an age of democracy’.
This is so because it provides ample opportunities to all human
beings to participate and run the affairs of state and government
themselves and thus, they get the opportunity to know and operate
almost each aspect of the political organization as per their own
wishes and aspirations. In fact, it is in a democracy wherein the
state must ensure transparency, responsibility and accountability
for its people to serve and protect their common interests by
making them aware about the polity and its functioning; and
that, as obvious, allows them to know the society and about the
worldly existence. Unfortunately, these extraordinary peoplefriendly
features are unavailable in all other forms of political
organizations.
Thus, both Indian culture and the democracy operate on the
same plane and on the same wave length with the same purpose
to let the people know or keep possessed with knowledge - both
spiritual and temporal. Obviously the right to know about political
organization may be considered to a reasonable extent in creating
an socio-economic environment of material progress providing
worldly pleasures and such satisfactions which may eventually
help to lay the foundation or background upon which an individual
may proceed ahead for his or her ultimate goal of knowledge i.e.
salvation, as propounded by the Italian the Sainted-Aristotle,
Thomas Aquinas, during middle ages.
The present article attempts to explore the extent of
degeneration that has cropped up in the functioning of Indian
Democracy against the wonderful and glorious background of
India’s ancient, moral and universal value-based ethos and soevolved
rich cultural heritage coming down unabated since
the dawn of civilization. While such an amazing cultural roots
do inspire faith as well as confidence among Indians about the
existence of supreme reality or the Almighty God, its gradual
decline over the years due to excessive western influence and soinspired
consumerism or consumer culture, has unfortunately
inculcated a sense of faithlessness among them about their own
selves as well as the God, obviously due to utter ignorance or lack
of knowledge - both temporal and spiritual; and that has already
shattered the very core of the eternal and universal human values
and ideals in many Indians thereby creating violence, chaos, utter
lawlessness, corruptions and many more such things and thus
degenerating the spirit of democracy in India.
As a way out, the article suggests that while people’s
awareness about the Indian Polity and hence Right to Information
can only help in reforming and strengthening the spirit of Indian
democracy, its continuing and prolonged practice may also helpcontribute
in strengthening and consolidating the country’s
ancient cultural roots and its rich heritage by help-evolving all that
is good and pleasurable in the human beings life in present times.
Criminalization, Corruption and Politicization of State & Administration
The growing criminalization of politics in India and
politicization of crime and criminals pose gave threat as many
criminals have already entered politics in the past few decades,
encouraged by political parties who wanted candidates strong
enough not to be intimidated by rivals. From a trickle of complaints
about a few criminals entering legislature in each state, there
is now a horrible situation where a huge bulk of honourable
parliamentarians and legislators of both Parliament as well as
state assemblies in India are suffering the stigma of criminal
records.
According to an old Election Commission study in 1997, there
were 40 sitting members of Lok Sabha and around 700 of the 4072
members in various state assemblies who had proven criminal
records to their credit. Indeed, it is perhaps only in Bharat (INDIA)
that criminals stand a higher chance of being elected than noncriminals.
The situation continues to be so dire that the former
President of India K.R. Narayanan, felt compelled to plead with
political parties in January 2001, for not nominating criminals for
public offices. Then there is rampant corruption and misuse of
government power along with looting of public money particularly
by the ruling classes and people’s representatives at all levels of
governance. In fact, the Tehelka Tapes had provided an audiovisual
proof over the electronic media about the well - entrenched
corrupt practices even in army where officials in collusion with
political masters and bureaucrats were more interested in lining
their pockets rather than giving the best equipment’s to the Army
Jawans.
Today the situation is far more painful and worrisome
with unearthing of so many big scams like Bofors Howitzer,
2-G Spectrum, Adarsh society allotment, Coal scam, Augasta
Wasteland scam to name a few, involving billions of billions hard
earned public money. In fact, the bribe - culture in almost all
government offices at levels has become the order of the day in the
country. Even Indian Judicial system is not immune from the virus
of corruption as the former Chairman of the Law Commission B.P.
Jeeva Reddy had already deplored that corruption had crippled
the Indian Judiciary. The politicization of state and administration
is another serious problem. Similarly, a noted Political scientist
Paul R, Brass [2] had aptly described the Indian State as an
‘institutionalized riot system.’
Should the People of India not know all these murky dealings
going unabated in the Indian polity as well as society? In fact,
these are only few tips of the iceberg. The cumulative result of all
these factors is fast erosion of Indian democracy which is unable
to develop the rule of law in the interest of all. There are several
other colossal challenges too attached with the system where
politics itself has become a ‘means without ends’; and this poses
ominous portents to the future of democracy in India. Hence what
is needed is a complete overhauling of the social, economic and
political system in India. An important aspect of this process
should be total decentralisation of administration providing for
maximum popular participation along with clear accountability
from top to the bottom [3].
There is an urgent need to reform and update various rules and
procedures including criminal procedure codes. Strengthening
the criminal justice system to ensure speedy resolution of
disputes is also the need of the hour. The representatives be
made accountable to their electorates by introducing the system
of recall. The Lok Pal Bill must also include the Prime Minister,
ministers and senior officers within its purview. Nevertheless,
these macro-reforms need to be matched by the reformist policy
for ensuring that the right people are at right jobs, and they have
the freedom to act without fear of revenge and reprisals. But none
of the above is likely to happen to any significant degree unless
people themselves become active, responsible and enlightened
citizens [4,5].
Hence what comes out to be most important is the
requirement of transparency, responsibility and accountability in
governance and administration and in the entire functioning of the
government. Thus, information and its smooth flow/circulation
among people at every nook and corner, assumes considerable
significance. Consequently ‘right to information’ becomes a sinequa-
none of a modern system of democratic governance. While
information here only pertains to the material world, yet it shall
to a considerable extent lay the foundation for the onward journey
towards realization of the spiritual world too.
Information and knowledge
Naturally the question arises as to what is information.
Information may be a set of coherent and consistent data which are
used for communication and that leads to production of knowledge
in the temporal world, because knowledge is innately inherent in
all human beings as Swami Vivekanand opined. A noted scholar
Porat operationally defines information as ‘data that has been
organized and communicated.’ Information provides knowledge
which gives opportunity and capacity to exercise freedom of choice
and provides confidence and effectiveness in making of decisions.
The Freedom of Information Bill, 1997 defines ‘Information’ as
any material relating to the affairs, administration or decision of a
public authority and includes any document or record relating to
the affairs of public authority [6].
Information which is required for daily living in a society
are: information of laws, services that human being make use of,
the different functions of government, tax benefits, scholarships,
social welfare services etc., has till recently, only been available in
print, as government publications or as verbal communications
from government offices and press briefings as direct written
communication between state and individual. Without free access
to such information, a modern society would experience great
discomfort and would gradually enter chaos and disorder. In
fact, the information deprived societies slide downwards into an
ignorant mess or worse into excessive controlled economies.
As obvious it has now become an established fact that
openness and accessibility to information about government’s
functioning is an essential ingredient of democracy. The hitherto
traditional curtain of secrecy which had long overshadowed the
activities of governments is gradually waning and this has created
a salutary effect on functioning of governments in all free societies.
In most of the democratic societies, the right to know is now
a well-established right created under law. It is a right that has
evolved with the maturing of the democratic form of governance
in all over the world. Democracy is no longer perceived as a form
of government where the participation of people is restricted
merely to periodical exercise of the right to franchise, with citizens
retiring into passivity between elections [7].
It has now a more positive and dynamic content with people
having a say in how and by what rules they would be governed.
Meaningful participation of people in major issues affecting
their lives is not a vital component of the democratic governance
but such participation can hardly be effective unless people
have information about the way government business is being
transacted. Thus, democracy means choice and a sound and
informed choice is possible only based on knowledge which
obviously has two aspects: temporal and spiritual.
As for knowledge, seeking of information is a pervasive human
activity which has a large social dimension in the modern social
context. We collect information through a series of sources:
universities, libraries, media and now internet to increase our
knowledge both for practical reasons and for comfort. In fact, we
want quality information. Evidently, knowledge is not only good
for us but is an essential requirement because our very survival
depends up on it. Therefore, western countries have already
enacted the legislation for freedom of information. Similar trends
have been also appearing in the developing countries as well. Even
in Pakistan, a Freedom of Information Ordinance was promulgated
few years ago. The new South African Constitution specifically
provides the right to information in its Bill of Rights, thereby
giving it an explicit constitutional status. Malaysia too operates
an online data base system, known as Civil Service Link, through
which a person can access information regarding functioning of
the public administration.
Unfortunately, prior to the present Freedom of
information
Bill, the Indian citizens did not have a constitutional right to
freedom of Information - even if that information was linked to his
or her survival. There are a plethora of laws, rules and regulations
which make it impossible for the ordinary citizen to get access to
basic information relating to vital areas such as health, safety and
environment. A worker working in an atomic plant does not have
the legal right to see the medical report on all levels of radiation;
a villager living near a chemical factory need not be warned of
possible air or water pollution even if there is danger to his fields
and a woman being tested for side effects of a contraceptive has no
right under the law to results of the research [8].
Even victims of state atrocities have no right to know about
the government’s findings on the case. For instance, the family of
a person tortured to death in a police lock up or killed in a fake
encounter does not have a right to see the magistrate’s enquiry
report. They do not even have the right to look at the post mortem
report too. Then there are specific laws which make it legal for the
government and government servants to withhold information.
Perhaps the earlier was the Indian Official Secrets Act passed in
1880’s, and the amendment of the Commissions of Enquiry Act.
In addition, there are innumerable rules and regulations which
make it illegal for even government servants to publish an article,
or speak at a meeting, or give an affidavit in a public interest
litigation.
Need of Openness and Transparency
All these led to realization of the importance of openness
and transparency at all levels. There have long been demands for
greater openness and transparency in administration which have
gained momentum in the past particularly by the happenings at
Ajmer in Rajasthan where villagers fed up with corruption in the
panchayat system, started demanding copies of bills, vouchers and
muster rolls relating to expenditure incurred by the panchayats.
Under the banner of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)
they organised jan sunwais (public hearings) between Dec. 1994
and April 1995, where these muster rolls and vouchers were
read out to the whole village, which revealed to utter dismay of
villagers, that many of the works that were supposed to have been
undertaken in the village and for which bill-voucher existed, had
in reality never been carried out [9].
The news of this experiment spread across the country which
strengthened the local people’s resolve for ensuring transparency
in public expenditure [10]. The slogan they adopted was: Harmara
Paise, Hamara Hisab (our money, our accounts). Motivated by
the happenings in Rajasthan, a national campaign on the right to
information was launched which worked with other groups and
an initial draft bill for the right to information was formulated.
Subsequently, the Press Council of India formulated its own bill,
using the earlier bill of the campaign as a base and involving
members of the national campaign committee in the drafting
work. This bill was presented to the Government of India which, in
turn, setup its own committee to examine the bill.
The committee had come up with a report and another draft
bill which incorporated many of the suggestions made in the
Press Council Bill [11]. These various draft bills were discussed
across the country and recommendations for additions and
amendments were sent to the government of India. Reportedly
this issue received support from political parties too. A consensus
also emerged in the Conference of Chief Secretaries held in
November 1996, on the need for an early enactment of the law on
Right to Information. This conference also urged for incorporation
of specific provision relating to transparency in the draft code
of Ethics too the Civil Services and the initiatives to formulate
Citizen’s Charter in various organizations under the Government.
The terms of reference establishing the above-mentioned
Working Group formally recognized the need for legislation
to affirm the right to information which had received judicial
recognition in 1982 [12]. Nevertheless, there is also a cogently
expressed theory of government accountability in parliamentary
democracy: Increasingly, the trend is towards accountability
in terms of standards of performance and service delivery of
public agencies to citizen’s groups they are required to serve.
Such accountability is possible only when the public have access
to information relating to the functioning of these agencies. The
group highlighted the importance of transparency and openness
which have a cleansing effect on the operations of public agencies.
As it noted, ‘sun light is the best disinfectant.’
Conclusion
Thus, transparency or openness is a primary requisite for
the good political health of a democratic state like India having
distinguished cultural identity based upon eternal moral values
and universal ideas and ideals. And that appeals to the people
at large who wish to know about the polity as well as society in
the temporal world and about their selves and ultimate purpose
of life and divinity in the spiritual world. While democracy is a
participative from of government in which people are expected to
play an active role in their governance, their effective participation
will be possible only when they have prompt and adequate access
to information pertaining to the state. In fact, too much of secrecy
in a government leads to arrogance and defective decision making
[13].
In a free society it is therefore very necessary to maintain a
reasonable balance between people’s access to information and
preserving confidentiality where disclosure would be entirely
against public interest. Hence there is a close nexus between
democracy and the right to information in this temporal world.
Without this right no democracy can ever succeed, as the right is
the hinge upon which alone can democracy smoothly rotate and
become dynamic and vibrant. And that may pave the way for the
country’s unmatched cultural uplift and civilizational progress
to revive the ancient India’s glory in the present times which is,
unfortunately, witnessing massive upheavals and tumultuous
changes, heinous crimes and macabre terrorism and such many
more things beyond imagination and description, thereby
ensuring hitherto unexplored material and spiritual benchmarks
simultaneously [14].
Because it is, indeed, India’s unique message to the entire
humanity founded on its ancient cultural ideals and the legacy of peace, solidarity and brotherhood in the world which firmly
believes the whole world constituted as a family i.e. vasudhaivkutumbakam.
Obviously what else can be the global vision
not present in the Indian culture which does not promote the
very spirit of democracy in the true sense of the term. And that
continues to grow and march from strength to strength with the
help of providing the required thrust for expansion of education
at every nook and corner of the country so that “We, the People
of India” may become well-versed in the working of government
to governance thereby contributing towards accomplishing the
greater enrichment of democracy in India. Obviously, this may
also pave the way towards better realization of the human self
in a more humanitarian perspective and congenial environment
to proceed towards sublimation for the ultimate attainment of
salvation. This is possible as nothing is beyond human endeavour.
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