Right to Information

I spent an extremely engaging couple of hours yesterday hearing Shailesh Gandhi talk about the Right to Information Act and the impact that single act could have on governance and civic issues. What impressed me most, other than Gandhi’s enthusiasm and energy was the fact that we have, for once, a system in place that forces the faceless, big-brotherly bureaucracy to listen and respond to each of us as individuals.
Though it may be Pol Science 101, I found it extremely interesting to think of the system of elective democracy as an exchange between the state and the individual – the individual giving up a part of his / her sovereignty for services rendered by the government.
The RTI is a simple and very powerful tool to put pressure on the system by individuals seeking public information which otherwise gets obfuscated by the vast tangle that passes for bureaucracy. And it’s so simple that I still am trying to figure out if there’s a catch; after all I too am a part of generation that has grown up learning to fear ability of the mai-baap system to run circles around me. I haven’t yet been able to find that catch. The more important thing, I guess if for us to use the tool to participate and engage with the state. Check out the site Satyamevajayate.info for simple information on how.