Friends,
One of my close friends (whose name I am not disclosing as a matter of personal
ethics) wrote a letter related to RTI to me. i quote a part of this letter-
“A few months back, I was against the book on RTI martyrs you were suggesting
to publish.
Today
when I was watching the news, I felt really sad for the activist and his
family. Since I don't know of him I'd like to share my grief with you, and also
request you to be very cautious in your approach of promoting RTI activists,
since the loss of life is now a waste and the mission he wanted to accomplish
can't be accomplished now, while the people who he stood up against will
continue their activities as usual.
My
humble suggestion for you is not to promote individuals to get too much
aggressive against the wrongdoers, rather work as a group with no individual
taking full responsibility of a single issue. It will be a life time effort,
don't try to do it as a short term exercise.”
I must say that this friend of mine is a truly kind-hearted and hugely
concerned person who is always there to assist people who are involved in
social causes. He is not against RTI activities in any way but he does differ
in views about how such activities shall be pursued. He is absolutely correct
when he says that we shall “work as a group with no individual taking full
responsibility of a single issue.”
But then there are certain issues involved in this matter which I thought I
must present for people to discuss and arrive at their own conclusions. The
very first of these issues is that RTI activities are related not only with
seeking information but are directly connected with socio-economic changes.
Then it also involves individuals. When we seek information about something,
more often than not one or more individuals start getting exposed in the
process. These people never really like this sequence of events. Naturally they
start taking all possible efforts to stop such activities for ever. This often
has a possibility of some kind of conflict arising between the two parties. This
is a natural process which can never be avoided. Whenever a person feels
threatened or harmed, he/she has the animal instinct of retorting back, which
might even go to adopting threatening measures. But to say that a group instead
of an individual can take up the issue is not always implementable and
practical. Many a times other people do not muster enough courage to pursue a
matter they are not related with. Then the person who has initiated the process
is also often reluctant to give it up in the middle. Thirdly, he/she knows the
issue better and is aware of the finer nuances which another person might not
be knowing of.
Thus,
to me it seems that the process of an changing the individual-based activity to
a group activity has its own limitations. But then this does not mean that
there is no role of cohesion and association ship in RTI and other social
activities. On the contrary, the more we come together and get strongly bonded
with each other, the more we find ourselves safer, securer and strengthened.
Thus, the immense need to get bonded up and to come together.
Summing it up, I personally feel that RTI activities have always to be a
combination
of individual and group efforts and any amount of group cohesion is not going
to completely change the importance and relevance of individual efforts.
Now coming to the second aspect raised in the letter regarding aggressiveness
against wrong-doers, to me it seems that this is purely an attitudinal aspect.
There are people who are by instinct more volatile and aggressive and get
personally involved in issues which don’t exactly concern them. In fact, more
often than not it is such an in-build attitude that makes a person a social
crusader. I won’t hesitate in saying that I severely lack such an attitude and
temperament but I would only consider it my short-coming, wishing that I also
had some of those brashness and abject braveness these people possess. But that
will not stop me from really admiring and saluting every such person who is
born with such an attitude, assertiveness and defiance. Can you deny saying
that despite the fact that many among you and me are nowhere near a Bhagat
Singh or Medha Patekar or Amit Jethwa, yet all of us in our inner heart wish we
were like them. It is people like them who really make a social change. The
rest of us are there to live and die.
Amitabh Thakur,
President,
National RTI Forum,
Lucknow
# 94155-34526
