Murder of RTI activist in Gujarat, tom-tommed for great governance

Villagers wait for body of slain RTI activist

By Venkatesh Nayak*
The print and electronic media have reported the recent murder of right to information (RTI) activist Ratansinh Chaudhary, aged 30, in Garamdi village in Suigam taluka of Banaskantha district, Gujarat, on October 17, 2015. This is the eighth instance of murder of an RTI activist in Gujarat, second only to Maharashtra in this dubious distinction. Four residents of the village are said to have accosted him and his son while he was walking in his farm and hit him on the head repeatedly, with stout sticks, resulting in his death. Registering an FIR on the basis of the complaint the deceased’s father, the police has identified all four perpetrators and is investigating the circumstances in which the murder occurred.
According to media reports, Ratansinh had demanded information from the District Collector and the District Development Officer (DDO) about the manner of distribution of flood relief package in his area recently. Suspicion of irregularities in relief distribution due to the alleged nexus between local politicians and bureaucrats is said to have triggered the RTI intervention. The murder is said to have occurred even before the information was supplied to the the Late Ratansinh.
Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) team has proceeded to the village to ascertain details of the case, in particular the RTI interventions attempted by late Ratansinh Chaudhary in a bid to demand proactive disclosure and widespread dissemination of all information sought by the deceased.
Ironically, less than 24 hours before the ghastly incident took place, Prime Minister of India declared that citizens should not only have the right to get access to information from public authorities, but also have the right to question the administration. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the Annual Convention of the Central Information Commission organised in New Delhi (October 16-17, 2015) to commemorate the completion of 10 years of implementation of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). Little did he, or his audience, or the numerous viewers who watched the live telecast of the inaugural session, expect a citizen to pay the price of his life for daring to question the Government in the very first week of the 2nd decade of the RTI Act.
Demanding the truth, let alone questioning government action, is increasingly becoming injurious to citizens’ health across India. In a cricket crazed country, Ratansinh’s alleged murder takes the total to the ‘diabolical’ figure of 50 since the implementation of the RTI Act. The Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2014 is stillborn with no plan for its effective implementation at either the Central or the State level. Instead the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government has piloted regressive amendments to this unimplemented law which will discourage many a potential whistleblower from coming forward to expose corruption and wrongdoing in Government. The Lok Sabha has already approved these amendments and they are pending consideration of the Rajya Sabha.
The NDA Government’s rationale for the regressive amendments contained in the Cabinet Note attached to the amendment proposals, revealed under RTI, is that citizens cannot have an absolute right to blow the whistle on corruption and wrongdoing. Meanwhile the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 intended to create apex anti-corruption institutions at the Central and State level has also remained a dead letter with both the United Progressive Alliance and the NDA Governments successively dragging their feet over its implementation.
Furthermore, the assets disclosure provisions for public servants and their families contained in the Lokpal Act have been challenged before the High Courts by the spouses of bureaucrats claiming privacy. Now that the Supreme Court has agreed that it is doubtful whether there is a fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and has moved to form a Constitution Bench to decide the matter conclusively, what will happen to these cases, and consequently The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act is anybody’s guess.
That the latest instance of murder has occurred in a state that is most tom-tommed about for its ‘great governance and development record’ comes as no surprise given the controversial nature of these claims. The electoral promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the largest partner of the NDA Government and which is also in power currently in Gujarat – “sabka saath – sabka vikas” (with all, for the development of all) seems to be leaving out from its scope whistleblowers, RTI activists and anti-corruption crusaders who only demand the practical realisation of India’s national motto- “satyameva jayate” (truth alone shall triumph).
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) demands an impartial investigation into the alleged murder of Ratansinh Chaudhary under the supervision of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), as the deceased was a human rights defender. NHRC-monitored investigations of such instances in the past have revealed the identity of conspirators behind such murders in addition to the role of the perpetrators.
CHRI also demands that the Gujarat Information Commission immediately seek details of all pending and disposed RTI applications filed by the deceased with the district administration in Banaskantha and ensure that all the information that he sought is disclosed under the provisions of the RTI Act immediately on the websites of the respective departments and on notice boards of the village, taluka and district administration. This action will frustrate the motives of the perpetrators of the crime as their efforts to keep the information under wraps would have gone in vain.
—
*Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog