Free speech under attack: Justice Shah 

BHUBANESWAR: The Right to Information (RTI) will not survive if free speech does not survive, opined Justice (Retired) AP Shah at the NCPRI national convention here on Saturday.     Addressing the gathering, he said although RTI was enacted during UPA’s regime, there have always been attempts by the Government in diluting its rigor and the trend of taking policy decisions without adequate information is very dangerous. “Institutions and free speech are under attack. There is a concerted attempt to destroy independent thought. If anyone holds a view that is different from the Government’s acceptable view, they are dubbed as anti-national. Voices of dissent and criticism are being browbeaten through online harassment, trolling and abuse,” he observed. 

Shah came down heavily on the bureaucracy stating that bureaucratic apathy and lack of transparency are the root causes of corruption inherent within the State machinery, which are seriously challenged when there is a statutory right to seek information.“The information relating to the functioning of the Government is a national resource. But there has been a prevalent culture of unnecessary secrecy in the system with the bureaucracy preferring to keep everything secret, distance and mystification not fundamentally different from the colonial times,” he pointed out.

The former Chairman of the Law Commission of India said despite several judicial declarations holding that the RTI is a constitutional right, it is not enough to make it a reality. The recent trend of not maintaining proper records, Shah said, is worrying most and the practice prevents public scrutiny and accountability of Government actions. There is an attempt to weaken RTI through creation of vacancies and arrears as many States and the Central Information Commission (CIC) do not have a full complement of commissioners. 

“Though the Whistle Blowers Protection Act was passed in the Parliament in 2014, the RTI activists continue to pay a heavy price for exposing corruption and wrongdoing as the Government has not yet operationalised the Act,” he added.