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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | RTI query on funeral -Ananya Sengupta

RTI query on funeral -Ananya Sengupta

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published Published on Nov 23, 2012   modified Modified on Nov 23, 2012
-The Telegraph

A Youth Congress member handpicked by Rahul Gandhi today sought an explanation from the party-led government in Maharashtra why Bal Thackeray was cremated with state honours.

In his plea filed under the Right to Information Act, Abdul Hafiz Gandhi, who shares his surname with the Congress leader, also wanted to know how the Shiv Sena was given permission to hold their late patriarch’s funeral at Shivaji Park, a public place.

The 33-year-old, however, played down his link with Rahul. “I am not that big,” he said, adding his queries — a copy is with The Telegraph — should be seen “in isolation” of his political leanings.

“I wanted to know why Thackeray, whose politics was one of divisiveness, qualified for state honours. His entire politics depended on violence and I think he didn’t deserve to be given the honour,” Abdul, who was picked by Rahul as a trainer in the Youth Congress’s training cell in 2009, said.

Thackeray’s body was draped in the national flag and a Mumbai police contingent gave a 21-gun salute at Sunday’s funeral, which reportedly drew nearly 20 lakh people around Shivaji Park, declared a “silence zone” by Bombay High Court.

Sources said some Congress leaders, too, had aired their displeasure about the “state funeral”. Today, the government refused to adjourn the first day of the winter session in deference to the late Sena founder, a proposal the BJP had mooted.

The government said Thackeray had been disenfranchised by a Supreme Court order in 1996 and barred from contesting elections for six years on the ground of seeking votes in the name of religion.

Abdul, who is from Etah, Uttar Pradesh, said any Indian citizen could file RTI queries. “I file RTIs because every citizen has the right to know how their money is being spent. Since I started filing RTIs in 2010, I have always concentrated on development issues as subjects of my queries.”

The former president of the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union, who was instrumental in reactivating the suspended body by petitioning the Supreme Court, said filing RTIs was his “way of participating in democracy”.

The prolific user of the RTI Act, now researching on resistance to RTI, today filed yet another query asking Mumbai police about the arrest of two young women over a Facebook post on Thackeray’s funeral.

“I have asked them to explain who ordered their arrest and, if the arrests were illegal, who would be taken to task for it. I have also asked for the names of those officers,” Abdul said.

The post by a 21-year-old had wondered, on the day of the funeral, why Mumbai had to shut down because of a death. Her batch-mate had clicked “like” in agreement. The two later got bail from a sessions court.

The Telegraph, 23 November, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1121123/jsp/nation/story_16231099.jsp#.UK8TKWfNNP0


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