At 2:37 PM +0100 4/25/05, umesh sharma wrote:
C-da,
You raise a very important point about Right to Information Law. I do not think India has any such law although people have been demanding it and govt saying it is NOT feasible.
*** Not true Umesh. A " Right to Information" law was
passed by the Lok Sabha during the past NDA govt. But the
administration did not enact it, did not put it in operation. Nor has
the UPA administration. Apparently there are loopholes in the system
that allows this to happen. Even the Supreme Court directed that the
law be put into place ( I can't be certain of this though, as to the
acxcuracy or the form of the directive), but to no avail.
But even if it were in place, there are other loopholes that
would render it useless. That is what the Sentinel Editorial attempted
to point out, but mixed up the message in its zeal on excoriating the
Meghalaya govt. for undertaking the 'ritualistic' exercise of enacting
yet another ineffective piece of legislation. The Sentinel's heart was
in the right place on this, but they failed to state clearly what the
problem is and failed to address what the solution ought to be
entirely.
*** You are right about the people's Right to Information.
Without it the people cannot hold its politicians and its govt.
accountable. It denies transparency of the functioning of the state
machinery. That is why I cited the Sentinel Editorial in my response
to Ram's post "Re: A light in the end of the tunnel? - Telegraph
India" where he held out the appointment of a commission to
oversee the functioning of the highly derided GMC as the kind of
solution he characterized as "This is what several of us have be
wanting to happen." Unfortunately it would be yet another
toothless tiger and will end up just like those others commissions
that have come and gone, with not a thing to show for.
>So Right to Info. can work in removing corruption - the
details are very important about how it will work - how public
servants can find time to do their regular work and provide info to
public as well. And how to make them accountable to provide info - and
how fast the legal systme shopuld work to punish the guilty.
*** You are absolutely right. I am glad it registered on you well
:-), unlike some of our much more experienced analysts of Assam
Net.
I think even if the legal system remains the snail it is - once the culpritshave been identified - the media and civil society and the general public will mete out its own kind of justice.
*** But this would NOT do. Unless guilt could be established and
punishment meted out, visibly, and in a timely manner ( in this
lifetime for example :-)), there would be no deterrence, like there is
none now. The moral code is not sufficient. A state needs functioning
civil and criminal codes.
c-da
However, Colombia in South America seems to be having such a law and a young man from their President's group Imet the other day , who was training youth to fight corruption said that they are able to use this law to dig up transactions in the govt. And get theguilty punished. It seems there the govt officials have to make info available within 15 days or face legal prosecution.
And they have been sucessful in lowering there corruption level from 72 to 63 score (Transparency International corruption rating , 2004) whereas India is still at a high of 90 score.
Colombia is the drug haven and still has managed this and got people convicted - as the man was saying.
So Right to Info. can work in removing corruption - the details are very important about how it will work - how public servants can find time to do their regular work and provide info to public as well. And how to make them accountable to provide info - and how fast the legal systme shopuld work to punish the guilty.
I think even if the legal system remains the snail it is - once the culpritshave been identified - the media and civil society and the general public will mete out its own kind of justice.
Umesh
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I am amazed by all the fine ideas being generated by our friends to
make desi-demokrasy accountable and transparent.
Allow me to enumerate them for posterity:
** People need to become more moral.
** People need to elect the good people. ( Obviously desis
have a problem in figuring out who is good and who is bad, unlike
all these fine wise folks of Assam Net)
**Assam better produce some good leaders, or else ( the inference
here would be that those other states in India must have good
leaders, how else are they doing so much better than Assam?)
** NGOs are the salvation. Assam needs more good NGO's. (With
enough of them, the dysfunctional GOs could be dumped and
we will see Assam prospering and living happily ever after)
** And now we have yet another great idea: Investigative
journalism to the rescue.
I am quite su! re DNB will be tickled to death to read about these fine
interpretations of his litany of kharkhowa woes by some of Assam's
best.
I am quite sure Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka would be too. Maybe it would
not be that good an idea to show it to him, without checking if he
has a heart condition. It might kill him from laughter. DNB himself
could be driven to write a testy article on kharkhowa reading
comprehension, considering how the Sentinel's efforts on educating
the clueless on the state of Indian govt's. transparency as
demonstrated by the pathetic toothlessness of the "Right to
Information" laws; laws that are routinely enacted, ritualistically,
only to be discarded and even perverted once the rites are over; did
not register on this august body of fine
Netters.
Yours Sarcastically.
cm
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