RTI: Ask At Your Peril

In its 10 years, the RTI Act has radically empowered the citizen. However, with activists murdered and provisions amended, it is still an uphill struggle against an inherently corrupt system, writes Amit Bhardwaj.

- Amit Bhardwaj

In August this year, a village in the Saheb-ganj district of Bihar stood witness to a horrific murder. Jawahar Lal Tiwary, a 60-year old man, disappeared on 10 August. In the days that followed, the police found a mutilated, headless body severed in five parts near the village river. It was confirmed to be Tiwary’s after they found his head, which had been buried in the sand.

Two months before Tiwary was murdered, 48-year-old Guru Prasad was beaten to death by his village pradhan in the Bahriach district of Uttar Pradesh.

The common thread here is that Tiwary and Prasad were both RTI activists who paid with their lives for daring to challenge the system through legitimate means. On 12 October, the country will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Right to Information Act. However, the tales of the RTI activists, who martyred themselves for trying to hold the government accountable for its actions, will remain unsung.

Tiwary had exposed the huge corruption in the distribution of cash under the flood relief funds in his panchayat, Bangara Nizamat. It was perhaps his long drawn dharna outside the block office of Sahebganj last year which provoked the perpetrators.

Guru Prasad sat on dharna against the misappropriation of village level funds by the pradhan. Prasad had ended his strike after he got assurance of action from block level officers. However, no action was taken against the accused and Prasad’s campaign for justice got him killed.