Citizens lose yet another right

Welcome to one more shock to the nation by this UPA government, which seems to spare nothing for the citizens of India and moreover makes a mockery of the person at helm who is supposed to the most qualified PM in the world as he makes compromises after compromises with his intellect and integrity to lead 1 billion helpless people who have been exploited by the people they themselves have elected.
The latest missile from cabinet comes in form of the the proposed amendment to the Right to Information Act. The amendment seeks to take beyond the purview of public, something called as file notings. A government file has two parts : papers under consideration (PUC) and file notings. File notings contain the comments, reasons and other details pertaining to the deliberations about PUCs. Therefore this acts as the trail of whole decision making process. Thus one can easily make out details like who agreed/disagreed with the decision, who all were a part of the decision making process, what factors were considered and what were not considered etc. And this laid bare the whole decision making process of government bodies. Transparency is a government official's biggest enemy and so it had to be taken on.
Lots of citizen had benefited by this powerful and empowering act. Citizen groups across the country were promising freedom from bribe and injustice doled out by government bodies by using this act. The ray of hope has met the obstacle. Perhaps this is going to be another step backward similar to the recent retrograde reservation ruckus.
RTI was the supposed to be the most progressive RTI act in the whole world and made India noticed and recognised for this pathbreaking ACT. It had held the Indian head high and promised to make the current equation betwween the government and the citizens better.But this government had proved earlier and can indeed go to any lengths to see its vested interest through.
But as was said about mumbaikars after the recent bombings in Mumbai, the Indian spirit will go on. Perhaps we need to go ahead despite the government. Perhaps India will just remain yet another country in the world. Perhaps we will become more adept by learning to work with the 'system' like many successful Indian entrepreneurs. Or perhaps India will be doomed!!. Best of luck India, tough times ahead.

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