Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 14,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot; title=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 14,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 57872
$metaTitle = &#039;Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot; title=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in) | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece" title="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 14,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot; title=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 14,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 57872
$metaTitle = &#039;Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot; title=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in) | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece" title="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f78f4569f38-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 14,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot; title=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 57872,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;Nikhil Dey.jpg&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 14,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 57872
$metaTitle = &#039;Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-Frontline.in&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;India&amp;rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &amp;ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&amp;rdquo; Excerpts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&amp;rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&amp;rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &amp;ldquo;people&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &amp;ldquo;file notings&amp;rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&amp;rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot; title=&quot;https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>interviews/nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in) | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece" title="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 57872,
		'title' => 'Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)',
		'subheading' => null,
		'description' => '<p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>
',
		'credit_writer' => 'Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece',
		'article_img' => 'Nikhil Dey.jpg',
		'article_img_thumb' => 'Nikhil Dey.jpg',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 14,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in',
		'meta_title' => '',
		'meta_keywords' => '',
		'meta_description' => '',
		'noindex' => (int) 1,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => null,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 57872,
	'metaTitle' => 'Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)',
	'metaKeywords' => 'RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA',
	'metaDesc' => '-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...',
	'disp' => '<p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece" title="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 57872,
	'title' => 'Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)',
	'subheading' => null,
	'description' => '<p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>
',
	'credit_writer' => 'Frontline.in, 18 December, 2020, https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece',
	'article_img' => 'Nikhil Dey.jpg',
	'article_img_thumb' => 'Nikhil Dey.jpg',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 14,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'nikhil-dey-well-known-rights-activist-and-founder-of-the-mazdoor-kisan-shakti-sangathan-mkss-interviewed-by-anupama-katakam-frontline-in',
	'meta_title' => '',
	'meta_keywords' => '',
	'meta_description' => '',
	'noindex' => (int) 1,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => null,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 57872
$metaTitle = 'Interviews | Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by  Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)'
$metaKeywords = 'RTI Act,Right to Information Act,Transparency,Accountability,Nikhil Dey,Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan,MKSS,Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,UAPA'
$metaDesc = '-Frontline.in

Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.

India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced...'
$disp = '<p style="text-align:justify">-Frontline.in</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">India&rsquo;s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution.</p><p style="text-align:justify">In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that &ldquo;in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.&rdquo; Excerpts:</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>* This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments?</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people&rsquo;s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people&rsquo;s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a &ldquo;people&rsquo;s legislation&rdquo;. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove &ldquo;file notings&rdquo; and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people&rsquo;s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece" title="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/interview-nikhil-dey-rti-helped-change-the-culture-of-governance/article33229947.ece">click here</a> to read more.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma</strong></p>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), interviewed by Anupama Katakam (Frontline.in)

-Frontline.in Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act. India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold the spirit of the law. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government managed to amend the Act in a manner that allowed it to wrest control of an independent institution. In an interview with Frontline, Nikhil Dey, well-known rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation that spearheaded the RTI, spoke about the resilience of the Act, its ability to withstand government pushback and how it could even help with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nikhil Dey, a believer in participatory democracy, said that “in a democracy, people are the sovereign. It is their right to ask. If you are stopping people you are stopping the sovereign.” Excerpts: * This year marks 15 years since the RTI Act was passed. Undoubtedly, it remains a powerful tool for people, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of tampering. Your comments? The roots of the powerful RTI movement go back 30 years. More than 15 years of people’s struggles, a nationwide campaign, and a robust and energetic people’s movement preceded the enactment of the national law. The law emerged from a movement, legitimising its claim to be considered a “people’s legislation”. That explains why it has been so widely used, and resolutely defended. The resistance to transparency and the right to information is not a recent phenomenon. There was a reaction to every step forward, and the first attempt to dilute the law came in the very first year from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which enacted the law. One major success of the movement was to defend the law and prevent the amendments that sought to remove “file notings” and other important provisions from the purview of the law. Activist citizens first fought for the law, put it to use as soon as it was passed, and defended it whenever there was an effort to dilute it. Therefore, the law can be tampered with, but it is now clear that such efforts will only strengthen the people’s resolve to fight for their right to information. The Indian RTI movement is a product of democratic aspirations and fundamental struggles for survival of ordinary citizens. There are six to eight million users of the RTI Act in India every year. They are the foot soldiers of the movement and even powerful and autocratic governments will find it impossible to suppress their voice. Please click here to read more. Image Courtesy: The Hindu-Frontline/ Sushil Kumar Verma