The battle of Beawar
THE, right to inspect bills, vouchers and muster-rolls of village development works becoming a major election issue? Well, that precisely is the attempt of the Maidoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) as it launched its indefinite dharna (sitin) with hundreds of participants from five Rajasthan telisils of Raipur, Jawaja, Blum, Devgarh and Mandal on April 6, at Beawar in Ajmer district.
And on April 6 itself, the state chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat released an order which gives the people the right to inspect relevant documents on various developmental projects. If this action is to be reckoned, the Sangathan seems to have tasted success. Both Shekhawat and the state chief secretary Mithalal Mehta assured Down To Earth that information would be made available not only at the village level, but also upto the state level. Said Shekhawat, "Right to information, as I said in the state assembly on April 5, 1995, and in the last panchayat elections, is a basic right. This lack of transparency is at the root of corruption. We are also committed to launch inquiries if people come up with prima facie cases, and are ready to take action."
What the people have achieved till date is a major victory. However, the government has as yet not granted one of the M Kss' basic demands: the right to avail photocopies of relevant documents, although both Shekhawat and Mchta agree in principle to provide them. Said Mehta, "We have no hard opinion on this.. But we want to ensure that there is no misuse of such an order and no unnecessary harassment of government functionaries."
Said Nikhil, an activist camping at the dharna site, "Without the right to photocopying, a mere right to inspection is impractical as firstly, illiterate villagers cannot read the document, but they can take back a photocopy and get it interpreted from others. Secondly, one cannot take down by hand all the information in a government document. Thirdly, a photocopy gives a right to took at the copy of the authentic document." At the dharna site, the MKSS sold 500 copies of the government order within five days for the people to take home as a victory trophy and to drive home their point.
On this count, the government seems to have buckled under resistance from certain quarters opposing the April 6 order. The statement that Shekhawat gave in the Rajasthan assembly on April 5, 1995, was categorical: "I want to tell this assembly today that we will provide information and photocopies of documents on payment of charges about all the development related works in villages and if irregularities are found, we will inquire into them..."
When the government did not come out with any order even after almost a whole year had passed after Shelchawat's announcement in the state assembly, the MKss decided to launch its indefinite dharna and make it a poll issue. This saw the government promptly swinging into action and release the order on April 6. Having obtained a copy of the order, the NtKSS immediately conveyed to Shekhawat that while the order was a welcome step, it was not sufficient. If the government has now developed cold feet to the photocopy issue, it only shows that it is backtracking.
The government's flimsy charge that the MKSS should have come to them first if it had problems with the order, only strengthens the Sangathan's position. one may recall that Shekhawat's April 5, 1995 statement was a fallout of the systematic campaign launched by the MKSS months earlier. Public hearings in five panchayats were held by the MKSS to inform people about various slipshod developmental projects in the state. This invariably invited the wrath of gramsevaks and sarpanches.
The Beawar dhama, obviously, is enjoying the support of a wide cross-section of people and organisations, and as an MKSS activist put it, there is no pressure to terminate it soon. Although Shekhawat stated emphatically that the state government will not allow anyone to reap political benefits from the issue, Aroma Roy of the MKSS stressed that the right to information would definitely figure as an election issue this time.
Undoubtedly then, in Ajmer, Pali, Rajsamand and Bhilwara districts - all MKss bases - political parties will find the going tough at the hustings without considering the issue of right to information altogether. The MKss has already decided to block entry of all election vehicles in its areas ofoperation unless campaigning parties clearly spell out their stand on the issue. What possibly bugs the state government is that the MKSS virtually stole the show walking off with an issue that the government thought was its trump card.