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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Needed: Tough person for CIC by Arvind Kejriwal

Needed: Tough person for CIC by Arvind Kejriwal

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published Published on Nov 5, 2009   modified Modified on Nov 5, 2009

Civil society's demand to appoint Kiran Bedi as the next Chief Information Commissioner has started an interesting debate. It has several dimensions.

One section of media, albeit very small, is projecting that there is intense lobbying going on for Bedi. The word "lobby" has unholy connotations and at times, implies vested interests. Is it that one day I, Aamir Khan, Anna Hazare, Subhash Chandra, Baba Ramdev, Madhu Trehan, Shabana Azmi, N R Narayana Murthy and many others conspired to "lobby" for Ms Bedi? The absurdity of the charge is obvious. More than 90% of SMS polls in almost all TV channels voted in favor of Bedi. Obviously, the people of India are not "lobbying" for Bedi. There is strong public opinion in her favor.

Intense, secret and unhealthy lobbying was already going on for this post, as it happens for any other post, till we suggested Bedi's name. It is to counter this unholy lobbying that we wanted the debate to come out in the open.
Some people are asking, "Is such lobbying by activists healthy or is it blackmailing?" I think the question should be, "Should a government respect public opinion in a democracy?"

What prompted such an action by these activists? A recent survey shows that RTI is collapsing. Only 27% of people who approach Information Commissions finally get information. 61% of Commissions orders are not implemented. Though the RTI Act makes it mandatory to penalize every RTI violation, only 2% were actually penalized. 25 Commissioners (out of 72) and four state commissions did not impose a single penalty last year, despite thousands of recorded violations. When the RTI Act came, officials were scared of its strong penal provisions. No more. Penal provisions have been rendered practically ineffective by these commissioners.

Therefore, there is a need to appoint a strict, no-nonsense person who can implement RTI provisions with zero tolerance. Bedi symbolizes that for the people of this country. It is not important whether she is finally appointed. The demand is to appoint a person who can strictly enforce RTI.

We have been demanding for the last three years that in keeping with the spirit of RTI, the process of appointing Information Commissioners should be made transparent, participatory and inclusive. Not only has the government found it uncomfortable to appoint a strong Information Commissioner, its intentions were summed up by a very senior minister whom we approached when some commissioners were being appointed last time: "You have to accept that these posts are meant to accommodate loyal retiring bureaucrats."

Whenever RTI activists demanded that the appointment process be made transparent, the media did not give us space. But when we asked for Bedi to be appointed, the whole media is talking about it. We are happy that this debate has started.

However noble a law or an institution may be, the government of the day can kill it by simply appointing a weak, ineffective and pliable person as its head. Almost all central and state governments have been killing institutions systematically. It is important that the appointments to CAG, CVC, CEC, judiciary, NHRC and all other such institutions be made through transparent, inclusive and participatory processes.

Citizens of the US have a direct say in appointments of even judges to their Supreme Court through public confirmation hearings. Why can't our governments call for names and nominations through public advertisements for these posts, put them on a website after some preliminary screening, call for public comments and then finalize names giving due reasons why some people were selected and others rejected? Several useful models are available to make process inclusive and participatory, if only the political will existed.

Till such time as the governments put such systems in place, we will keep suggesting names to the governments for all these positions, even at the cost of being dubbed "lobbyists" and "blackmailers".

(The writer is a social activist)


The Times of India, 5 November, 2009, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Needed-Tough-person-for-CIC/articleshow/5198205.cms
 

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