The Indian bureaucracy is on the brink of a revolution with the Right to Information (RTI) Act ready to usher in transparent governance, says the country's first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah.
"There has been white revolution, green revolution and velvet revolution. Likewise, this transparency revolution, too, will have a degree of turbulence," said the retired bureaucrat now charged with the task of ensuring bureaucratic transparency through the RTI regime.
"It's a great novelty not so much in the way of working, but certainly in the way of thinking. From now onwards, secrecy will be more an exception than the norm," he said.
"What we are working is a revolution - the whole functioning of the bureaucracy. These disclosures will restore confidence in the bureaucracy," Habibullah told IANS in an interview.
The RTI Act, which came into force Oct 12 after protracted debate, empowers citizens to seek information from the government on any subject except in those areas that affect national and commercial security. It seeks to radicalise the culture of governance that has long lain entangled in secrecy and labyrinthine red tape.
The sheer scale of the exercise entailed in implementing the RTI Act is mind-boggling. The culture of transparency will extend to all areas of government, including defence deals that have been mired in charges of favouritism and corruption in the past.
"Defence deals are like any other deal. After the deal is finalised, it becomes public property. Of course, information can be denied if the revelations compromise on financial, commercial and national security."
Likewise, file notings by bureaucrats "that are innocuous and do not impinge on national security" could be made available in the public domain, the chief information commissioner clarified.
Asked if he expected resistance from a bureaucracy trained in keeping secrets, Habibullah said: "A bureaucracy is an institution designed to maintain status quo. Therefore, bureaucracy is hesitant about accepting novelties. But there are already stirrings of change.
"There are some bureaucrats who are in favour of transparency. But the mind of a bureaucracy will take time to change. A leviathan may not change just because one of its amoebas is changing," he said.
"Besides, the idea the right to information emanated from an insider to bureaucracy, Aruna Roy, who later on became an activist. Broadly speaking, it has struck a sympathetic chord with the bureaucracy."
He stressed that the RTI Act was not meant to pit the bureaucracy against the people.
"Up till now we had the Official Secrets Act, one of whose statements of objectives said that a need has arisen to protect the interests of the citizenry.
"But we are part of a democracy. The government is a part of the citizenry; it is there to serve the citizenry, and not in need of protection from the citizen."
But Habibullah warned: "The right has to be exercised with some responsibility and not misused."
Source: http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73672
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