Friends,
I present before you an email sent by one of our “friends” in a yahoo group, which goes like this- “unethical ethics! thats what amitabh and nutan thakur are for. Posted by: "Right To Information" [email protected] neswrti Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:21 am (PDT) Hi , why RTI fund ? because the money-hungry amitabh and nutan need it. ask people of districts where amitabh has served as ips officer . ask the children of the school from where nutan draws the salary but never teaches them . you shall know the truth. know truth before you act. when such people boast of ethics , it hurts. god bless.” As can be easily seen, this is a mail with clear-cut personal accusations. What is interesting is that this mail writer has chosen a name that does not relate to a living person. When I went further into the matter, I found this detail for this email sender- “The person you have searched for either does not exist or has chosen to hide his profile.” This person sent at least two mails related with me even before this. One of them was- “1- if nutan thakur is a teacher in government school in India ? 2- if this school is in uttar pradesh ? 3- if this school is in barabanki ? 4- if its true that she never goes to her school ? if yes then for how many days in a month? 5- whatever salary he draws per month , if it is justified drawing salary without performing any duties that too to a activist ? 6- if it is justified to boast high morales and do not follow them ? 7- How much time she spends in the school ? may be this all be wrong but do answer or else the nation will think otherwise. barbara you are the mouthpiece of national rti forum so if nutan or amitabh fail to reply i expect you to reply to the nation.” The other was on the same line. I ignored both these mails because I thought there was not much issue in locking horns over personal matters. Then I got another mail from a so-called doyen of social activities in Lucknow, who has got a prestigious award in social work, which again asked me about my teaching job at Barabanki. I gave a suitable reply to him. A part of my reply goes this way- “हॉ यह सही है कि मैं बाराबंकी के एक स्कूल में टीचर हू। मैं आपसे सहमत हूँ कि किसी भी व्यक्ति को इस प्रकार से स्कूल से पैसे ले कर नहीं वहॉ जाना बिल्कुल गलत है। पूर्व में भी कुछ ग्रुप-मेलों पर किसी अनजान व्यक्ति ने इस तरह के आरोप लगाये थे पर उसका प्रभाव न पड़ते देख ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि उन्हीं लोगों ने आपको यह भ्रामक सूचना दी है। “ Then the same person sent another mail, which is like this- “dear nutan ji, XXXXX ji has asked our opinion about you in response to mail you've sent her about your proposed publication on RTI. but since a question has been raised about your role as a teacher i want to first convince myself that you're fulfilling your responsibility fully as you've mentioned in the following letter. kindly let me know the name of the school where you teach. i'll ask people in barabanki to confirm your statement below and then i'll write to XXXX ji. love YYYYYYY,” I told him the school name. And this is the next mail. I don’t make any conclusion from this sequence of events. But I would like to only state a few facts in brief- 1. My husband got initiated in RTI because of some issues related with his service matters, which has a long story of its own 2. Then we found it an important tool for some kind of social service, in our own limited way 3. This led to the founding of the National RTI Forum 4. We try in our own way to do whatever we can for the society which shall continue doing to the best of our capacities, despite all such distractions 5. Neither me nor Amitabh ji has ever claimed any “boast of ethics” 6. We know that our work is very insignificant to the great work being done by many others, who are so much sincere and dedicated. 7. We are ordinary people and as much a mixture of good or bad as anyone else is 8. At the same time, we don’t believe in tolerating any non-sense by anonymous email-senders who get personal and start hurling personal accusations. 9. This same email has been responsible for making such criticisms of many other RTI activists also in a very personal and uncouth manner. As an example- “Some Dr Neeraj Kumar, teacher in the department of business administration ,a guilty of moral turpitude, scandalous misconduct and wilful negligence ,charges against him including financial embezzlement, admission irregularities and sodomising his driver??????????? if its true , its a national shame.” 10. Obviously all my friends are completely free to choose your options about what impression you want to have about us. 11. Similarly, about the RTI Fund, every person is quite independent to make a decision. Think twice before giving any support. The anonymous email sender might even be correct I present this email for three reasons- 1. To share our new experience in social activism with you 2. To bring forth the kind of dirt and personal animosity that has seemingly come in the field of social activities, so as to leave the original work and to go for personal lampooning 3. To ask for your opinion and advice, before we proceed any further in this matter Dr Nutan Thakur Convener, National RTI Forum, Lucknow # 94155-34525
