The Naxal Menace: Need for a National Policy
Saumitra Mohan
The recent naxal attack in the Giridih district of Jharkhand resulting in the death of 18 people has once again drawn attention to the dreaded malaise that naxalism has become in this country. Naxals’ increasing activism, growing reach and killing power should make us give a more serious thought to this problem.
Skilled in guerrilla warfare techniques, naxalites have excellent intelligence system. With committed leaders, motivated cadres, better trained armed militia and sophisticated weaponry, naxals, today, are better equipped to intercept police communication and strike the desired targets at will.
Spread over 170 districts, the naxals have been taking advantage of the rising agrarian distress, destruction of forests, uprooting of tribals and marginal peasantry due to predatory mining, irrigation, metallurgical and other developmental projects, not to speak of growing regional disparities. It is quite disconcerting to know that more than two-third of the severely naxalite-affected districts lie in the tribal areas.
The tribals and the marginal farmers form the main part of their cadre strength. They even have few doctors, engineers and educated persons providing the technical expertise required for their various subversive activities. With very committed and motivated leaders, legion of workers and sympathisers and with help from the forces hostile to this country, naxals have been growing from strength to strength, posing a real threat to the national security of this country.
The ‘Red Corridor’ comprising the so-called ‘compact revolutionary zone’ (CRZ) is said to stretch from Nepal through some of the most backward regions of the country including Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Maharashtra. The naxals first aim to establish a base area inside the Dandakaranya forest, spanning MP, Chattisgarh, Orissa and parts of Maharashtra.
Termed variously as ‘the enemy within’, ‘the fifth columnists’ and ‘the Trojan Horse’, the naxals find it easier to operate from the backward and underdeveloped areas as people in these areas respond better to their propaganda machinery. Untouched by the light of education and benefits of development, the poor and hungry fall easy prey to disaffecting influences from the naxalites.
In some of these predominantly tribal areas, naxals are known to run parallel administration. They run Kangaroo courts called ‘Jan Adalats’, schools, primary health centres, and taxation system imposing levis on contactors, mine owners, businessmen and even on government officials.
Fearing loss of popular support, the naxals conveniently oppose any developmental activities inside the forest areas misinforming people that such acts are directed at taking their lands, mineral and forest wealth which rightfully belong to them. Successful governmental initiatives and intervention may deprive them of the issues for popular mobilization against the government. Continued underdevelopment and backwardness make it easier for them to mislead and misguide the innocent people against the government.
It is more that established now that naxals have fraternal ties with disruptive and fissiparous forces within and without the country. They also support many such separatist forces and their nefarious cause including their right to self-determination which has serious implications for the security and integrity of this country. With such ideological stance, it does not leave them any scope for pangs of conscience to affect them, while tying up for ulterior purposes with anti-national forces. In fact, they pose a great ideological threat to the Indian State as they question the very legitimacy of the same. To naxals, ‘naxalism’ in not a problem; rather it is a solution to the many ills afflicting the country.
Naxals are learnt to have teamed up today with Nepal’s’ Maoists to create disaffection among people of Nepalese origin who have been living for generation in Darjeeling and Dooars regions of West Bengal and lower Sikkim. Their purpose is to engineer a movement for ‘self-determination’, which could unleash violence on a wide scale, much worse than what was witnessed during the ‘Gorkha Land’ agitation.
Today, naxalites are being used by Pakistan’s ISI for carrying out subversive activities in this country including drug trafficking and fake currency rackets. In return, the ISI is providing the naxalites with sophisticated weaponry and know-how for making and using improvised explosives devices. Seized weapons and ammunition bear witness to this. There is an increasing possibility of the emergence of a grand coalition of Islamic fundamentalist and Marxist-Leninist forces who are united by the common purpose of subverting the Indian state.
More than a law and order problem, naxalism needs more specialised attention and coordinated action than seen so far. We need to explore and address its socio-economic dimensions.
Today, if we really mean to solve the naxal problem, we need a multi-pronged strategy therefor. A pro-active planning and better synergised coordination among the central and affected state governments through a well-thought out national policy on naxalism is the first step in this direction. We not only need to modernise our police forces and equip them with state-of-the-art weapons and equipment, there is also an urgent need for enhancing our force levels. Better training, better area-specific counter revolutionary strategies and better motivation of forces are other important pre-requisites for tackling the naxal threat.
Such innovative measures as creation of a ‘public peace force’ as experimented in Chattisgarh in the form of ‘Salwa Judum’ where locals have been employed as ‘Special Police Officers’ with a monthly remuneration of Rs. 2000 need to be reconceived and reorganised in the light of experiences gained since its inception in 2005 in Dantewada district. Such an experiment has contributed positively towards counter-terrorism efforts in Jammu and Kashmir and there is no reason why the same should not succeed vis-à-vis naxalism in other parts of the country. But it should be seen that such a measure does not result in the vertical divisions of the civil society to the detriment of the larger public good.
And, if any such counter revolutionary planning has to be successful, the local people of the naxal-infested regions should definitely be taken into confidence. The government machinery must do the utmost possible to neutralise the negative government image as created and sustained by the naxalites through their agitprop.
It should be ensured that the benefits of all government anti-poverty and development schemes including National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, Member of Parliament Local Area Development Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission, Special Component Plan, Tribal Sub-Plan, Integrated Tribal Development Plan, Indira Awas Yojna, Integrated Child Development Scheme, Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarajgar Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Gramin Rojgar Yojna reach the targeted beneficiaries.
Special schemes and programmes aimed at the overall economic development of naxal affected regions should be chalked and implemented. Improved and pronounced government interventions and presence would also help bridge the confidence gap between the government and the public, thereby strengthening the intelligence set-up, so required for countering the naxal menace.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Growing Naxal Threat in West Bengal
*Saumitra Mohan
If recent patterns of naxal violence and activism in West Bengal are any indication, the Maoists’ new strategy seem to be setting up bases in newer regions by means of taking up such emotive issues as forcible displacement caused by industrialization and infrastructure development projects. The reports of alleged involvement of the naxals in recent ‘ration riots’ across West Bengal also give a tell tale hints of their changing tactics.
With Singur and Nandigram coming into focus, naxalites seem to be placing more reliance on agrarian revolution and protracted people's war as the path for their so-called ‘new democratic revolution’, as seen during the heydays of the Naxalbari upsurge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The motivation for reversion to the nearly four-decades-old agenda is the temptation to capitalize on the controversy revolving around the conversion of farmlands into industrial zones.
The naxalites have, indeed, successfully cashed in on the popular resistance to the proposed land acquisitions in Singur and Nandigram, if reports of their expanding mass base in such areas are to be believed. They further plan to use resistance to the SEZ phenomenon as a means to extend their presence to new areas.
The recent surge in naxal violence in West Bengal has established beyond doubt that naxalism is no longer a mere law and order problem here. Naxalites are learnt to have teamed up with Nepal’s Maoists to create disaffection among people of Nepalese origin, who have been living for generations in Darjeeling and Dooars regions of West Bengal. They intend to engineer a movement for ‘self determination’ which could unleash violence on a wide scale and much worse than that was witnessed during the hey days of ‘Gorkha Land’ agitation.
Not only this, they have also been linked up with the extremists of the Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) whom the former have been allegedly providing moral and logistical support for carrying out agitation for the creation of a separate Kamtapur state to be carved out of the areas in North Bengal and Assam. Closure of many tea gardens and continuing industrial sickness in the tea gardens of North Bengal has provided them with a potent issue to expand their network and activities in the region.
The perceived administrative inefficiency and relative underdevelopment in the districts of West Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and parts of East Medinipur and Burdwan have given them enough leeway to grow in size and they seem to be running parallel administration in the so-called ‘liberated zones’ of these districts. They have been striking at will as reflected in the frequent naxal attacks on some police posts and establishments of party offices in Belpahari, Bandowan and other such places resulting in the killing of some policemen and party cadres.
Naxalites are known to follow flexible tactics. If the situation warrants, they restrict the movement at the level of political mobilization, highlight local issues through front organisations and organize meetings in strongholds to garner popular sympathy. They are believed to be working at a counter strategy including exploring newer ways to intensify the people's war by increasing their mass base across the state and strengthening its armed cadres.
The Maoists do not abruptly launch into 'armed struggle' or violence, but are known to proceed very methodically including conducting a preliminary study of local social, economic and political milieu and the vulnerabilities of particular populations before coming out with customized action plans. They prefer to maintain a low profile in adverse conditions. They deliberately keep violence low in border regions so as to keep away police attention, thereby facilitating intra-state movement. The porous borders with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan provide them easier getaway for safer hide-outs in those countries.
If we try to see through the pattern, breadth and precision of naxal violence in the country, then we would find that the naxalites have not only been successful in strengthening the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of the CPI-Maoist, but have also succeeded in recruiting more cadres through militant, but populist mass movements against the neo-liberal policies of globalization, liberalization, and privatization. Their strategies seem to expand the armed struggle from 'guerrilla war' to 'urban and mobile warfare', focusing on industrial areas.
Taking a cue from their Nepalese counterparts, the ‘desi’ naxalites are learnt to have got into collusion with the sundry revisionist and secessionist forces in a bid to expand their support base. Maoists in Nepal had declared their support to eight minority autonomous regions during their armed struggle phase and thereby got immense support, in turn, from these areas.
Naxalites, here, similarly have been supporting demands for a separate state of Kamtapur as part of their larger goal of eventual setting up of a communist state in this country. Not only this, they also support the secessionist movements in north-east and Kashmir and as such they pose bigger threats to national security than we have cared to believe so far.
Now that increasing evidence is being found of their extra-national linkages with the forces hostile to the interests of this country, there is definitely an urgent need for a national policy on naxalism to evolve a well-coordinated approach towards the resolution of this problem.
Not only this, there is also a need for a reinforced and better targeted developmental efforts in naxal-affected districts apart from sprucing up the extant police machinery. The police need to be better equipped to deal with the naxal threat and evolve area-specific counter revolutionary measures for the purpose. Moreover, better awareness among the people of the affected areas about the real naxal intent to deprive the people of the fruits of development in a bid to grind their own axe can also come handy in tackling the naxal threat.
In fine, better counter revolutionary measures coupled with effective development initiatives and positive awareness among the people hold the key to the naxal problem.
*Saumitra Mohan
If recent patterns of naxal violence and activism in West Bengal are any indication, the Maoists’ new strategy seem to be setting up bases in newer regions by means of taking up such emotive issues as forcible displacement caused by industrialization and infrastructure development projects. The reports of alleged involvement of the naxals in recent ‘ration riots’ across West Bengal also give a tell tale hints of their changing tactics.
With Singur and Nandigram coming into focus, naxalites seem to be placing more reliance on agrarian revolution and protracted people's war as the path for their so-called ‘new democratic revolution’, as seen during the heydays of the Naxalbari upsurge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The motivation for reversion to the nearly four-decades-old agenda is the temptation to capitalize on the controversy revolving around the conversion of farmlands into industrial zones.
The naxalites have, indeed, successfully cashed in on the popular resistance to the proposed land acquisitions in Singur and Nandigram, if reports of their expanding mass base in such areas are to be believed. They further plan to use resistance to the SEZ phenomenon as a means to extend their presence to new areas.
The recent surge in naxal violence in West Bengal has established beyond doubt that naxalism is no longer a mere law and order problem here. Naxalites are learnt to have teamed up with Nepal’s Maoists to create disaffection among people of Nepalese origin, who have been living for generations in Darjeeling and Dooars regions of West Bengal. They intend to engineer a movement for ‘self determination’ which could unleash violence on a wide scale and much worse than that was witnessed during the hey days of ‘Gorkha Land’ agitation.
Not only this, they have also been linked up with the extremists of the Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) whom the former have been allegedly providing moral and logistical support for carrying out agitation for the creation of a separate Kamtapur state to be carved out of the areas in North Bengal and Assam. Closure of many tea gardens and continuing industrial sickness in the tea gardens of North Bengal has provided them with a potent issue to expand their network and activities in the region.
The perceived administrative inefficiency and relative underdevelopment in the districts of West Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and parts of East Medinipur and Burdwan have given them enough leeway to grow in size and they seem to be running parallel administration in the so-called ‘liberated zones’ of these districts. They have been striking at will as reflected in the frequent naxal attacks on some police posts and establishments of party offices in Belpahari, Bandowan and other such places resulting in the killing of some policemen and party cadres.
Naxalites are known to follow flexible tactics. If the situation warrants, they restrict the movement at the level of political mobilization, highlight local issues through front organisations and organize meetings in strongholds to garner popular sympathy. They are believed to be working at a counter strategy including exploring newer ways to intensify the people's war by increasing their mass base across the state and strengthening its armed cadres.
The Maoists do not abruptly launch into 'armed struggle' or violence, but are known to proceed very methodically including conducting a preliminary study of local social, economic and political milieu and the vulnerabilities of particular populations before coming out with customized action plans. They prefer to maintain a low profile in adverse conditions. They deliberately keep violence low in border regions so as to keep away police attention, thereby facilitating intra-state movement. The porous borders with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan provide them easier getaway for safer hide-outs in those countries.
If we try to see through the pattern, breadth and precision of naxal violence in the country, then we would find that the naxalites have not only been successful in strengthening the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of the CPI-Maoist, but have also succeeded in recruiting more cadres through militant, but populist mass movements against the neo-liberal policies of globalization, liberalization, and privatization. Their strategies seem to expand the armed struggle from 'guerrilla war' to 'urban and mobile warfare', focusing on industrial areas.
Taking a cue from their Nepalese counterparts, the ‘desi’ naxalites are learnt to have got into collusion with the sundry revisionist and secessionist forces in a bid to expand their support base. Maoists in Nepal had declared their support to eight minority autonomous regions during their armed struggle phase and thereby got immense support, in turn, from these areas.
Naxalites, here, similarly have been supporting demands for a separate state of Kamtapur as part of their larger goal of eventual setting up of a communist state in this country. Not only this, they also support the secessionist movements in north-east and Kashmir and as such they pose bigger threats to national security than we have cared to believe so far.
Now that increasing evidence is being found of their extra-national linkages with the forces hostile to the interests of this country, there is definitely an urgent need for a national policy on naxalism to evolve a well-coordinated approach towards the resolution of this problem.
Not only this, there is also a need for a reinforced and better targeted developmental efforts in naxal-affected districts apart from sprucing up the extant police machinery. The police need to be better equipped to deal with the naxal threat and evolve area-specific counter revolutionary measures for the purpose. Moreover, better awareness among the people of the affected areas about the real naxal intent to deprive the people of the fruits of development in a bid to grind their own axe can also come handy in tackling the naxal threat.
In fine, better counter revolutionary measures coupled with effective development initiatives and positive awareness among the people hold the key to the naxal problem.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Strengthening the Right to Information
Saumitra Mohan
It has been more than two years since the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into force in October 2005. Immediately after its enforcement, a concern was expressed in certain quarters about adequate efforts not being made by all those concerned to implement the Act in its true spirit. It was felt that vested interests were making an all out effort to sabotage the Act.
Lot of hue and cry was heard when there was an attempt from within the government to water down certain portions of the Act by excluding the details of information contained in an official note sheet on the pretext of administrative necessity and for securing the officials against victimisation.
But in this all, people failed to realise that the Act was in its infancy and would take its time before it starts working to its potential. And it was not very late before people actually started realising the import and power of the right emanating from this particular Act. Now they seem intent on using the right enshrined in the Act for anything and everything pertaining to their civil right in democratic India.
While there were very few petitions seeking information under RTI to begin with, today there seems to be a deluge of such requests in almost all government departments and agencies. It has not only resulted in increased confidence among the general public about the utility of RTI in ferreting out information from the government on a subject of their interest, the same has also made the different government departments more transparent and responsible than they had ever been, something which was the real purport of this Act.
The many path-breaking decisions and judgements consequent to sundry appeals for information under RTI by the Central Information Commission and various State Information Commissions, the veil of secrecy hanging over the official records has slowly been lifting, resulting in substantive dilution of the draconian Official Secrets Act, 1923 which had been the last resort of a reluctant bureaucrat for denying even innocuous information to the members of common public on one or the other pretext including the one pertaining to state’s security and integrity and the larger public interest.
Now, several landmark decisions and judgements of the Central and State Information Commissions later, it is reinterpretation of the same ‘larger public interest’, which is being proffered as a ground on which various wings of central and state governments should be sharing the information with the common public of this country. Even though today the right to seek information under RTI has come into its own and has become a powerful tool for exercising one’s democratic rights, one feels that still a lot needs to be done to further strengthen and reinforce this right before it can really become a genuine weapon of popular control exercising benign influence over the different government bodies.
Even though the number of petitions requesting information under RTI has gone up by leaps and bounds, this number could be much more substantial than it is presently. Still, there is a lot which needs to be done to generate awareness among the people about their powers under RTI, though various adverse judgements of information commissions resulting in imposition of pecuniary and disciplinary action against many government servants are also creating enough awareness by way of demonstration effect.
Many government departments and bodies including judiciary have made it costlier for the hoi polloi to seek and access information. The price to seek and obtain information has been made prohibitive by many agencies defeating the very intents and purposes wherefor RTI was conceived. Since it has been left to various state governments and autonomous governments bodies to frame such rules relating to the various charges for information sharing, they have found an excuse in the same by way of making the same ridiculously high.
While these prohibitive costs to seek information do discourage non-serious information seekers, they also repel the many genuine ones who are not well-off enough to be able to foot the bill for the purpose. However, there are specific provisions in the Act about the inadvisability of charging anything from people below the poverty line. But one has to understand that there are many millions others in the country who, even though above the poverty line, are no better. These people are, at least, definitely not so better as to be able to spend a princely sum for seeking and obtaining information under RTI.
Then, there is a practical problem which has come to the fore after the requests seeking information started to flow in thick and fast. The problem relates to the shortage of staff and officers for attending such requests. It is because of this that there has been an overload of pending requests with different information commissions and government bodies.
Since there has been many landmark judgements by now wherein specific pecuniary penalties have been imposed upon many government servants for deemed deliberate failure to provide information in time and since such penalties have to footed from one’s own pockets, government staff and officers are found to be on toes now to attend to such requests and provide the requested information within the statutory 30 days’ period as per the Act.
Today, when many government departments and bodies are already reeling under the shortage of staff and officers in these times of downsizing and rationalizing of the size of the government employees, the normal functioning of these departments and bodies are severely getting hampered. As non-compliance under the Act results in personal financial loss including the fear of departmental proceedings, a government staff or officer is more than keen to attend to RTI requests before anything else.
Some of these problems have arisen also because of the fact that many government departments and bodies have still not put the requisite in-house information into the public domain as they are supposed to do under RTI. This also results in delay or outright refusal in furnishing of the desired information to the petitioners. When a request to furnish information on National Policy and Action Plan on computerization of judiciary under RTI was sent to the PIO (Public Information Officer) in the Ministry of Law and Justice, the response was “the details of implementation of the plan are still being worked out. That being so, it is not possible to give any information in the matter at this stage.”
Not only this, many government departments and bodies have still not notified the Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO), Public Information Officer (PIO) and the Appellate Authority (AA) as warranted by the Act. This has resulted in many such RTI petitions being shuffled around among various government departments and officers on the pretext that one has not been notified as APIO, PIO or AA to be able to entertain such a petition or that the desired information is not readily available in sharable form frustrating the purpose of the Act further.
There is no denying that in order to exercise the freedom of speech and expression effectively, you need an informed public opinion and it is here that the right to information comes into play. The right to information, thus, flows out of freedom of speech and expression. The Right to Information Act, 2005 is not the repository of the right to information. Its repository is the constitutional right to free speech and expression. The Right to Information Act is merely an instrument that lays down the statutory procedure in the exercise of this right. It is, therefore, necessary that all exceptions and denials of the right to information must necessarily conform to the restrictions that bear a nexus to those mentioned in Article 19 (2) and to none others.
So, there is an urgent need to do some further soul-searching as far as implementation of the Act is concerned. All the government departments and bodies should not only put all the permissible information pertaining to their establishments in readily sharable form, they should also immediately notify and properly publicise the APIO, PIO and AA for accessing information relating their offices. Also, it is advisable that such notified authorities should remain in the same office for ensuring better efficiency and accountability.
In fact, it is proposed that as far as possible, a self-contained office should have APIO, PIO and AA in the same premises. It makes the system more efficient and also makes it easier for the common public. For example, if the District Magistrate starts entertaining all RTI petitions pertaining to every office under his/her control and supervision, then he/she would be left with no time to attend to his/her normal work.
So, it is advisable that various authorities to be notified remain within the same premises. Moreover, the central and state governments should make further clarifications to ensure that the cost of seeking and obtaining information under RTI does in no case become prohibitive. Also, the entire process of moving an RTI application has to be further simplified. The phone-in system, as instituted in Bihar, should now be extended to rest of the country. This avoids a common citizens several trips to the government office. E-governance should be utilised to the maximum for the purposes of RTI.
Moreover, there shall also be a need for dedicated staff and officers to attend to RTI requests and also to pre-empt the hampering of the normal functioning of the office by engaging regular staff and officers. There is also a need for grant of specific financial grant to a government office for meeting various expenses required to be incurred for provisioning of information (e.g. xeroxing et al) and for further strengthening and reinforcing the service delivery system under RTI for being able to serve the people better.
If we are able to modify and further refine the Act, one is sure that the powers granted to a common citizen here shall go a long way in strengthening and reinforcing our democratic foundations.
Saumitra Mohan
It has been more than two years since the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into force in October 2005. Immediately after its enforcement, a concern was expressed in certain quarters about adequate efforts not being made by all those concerned to implement the Act in its true spirit. It was felt that vested interests were making an all out effort to sabotage the Act.
Lot of hue and cry was heard when there was an attempt from within the government to water down certain portions of the Act by excluding the details of information contained in an official note sheet on the pretext of administrative necessity and for securing the officials against victimisation.
But in this all, people failed to realise that the Act was in its infancy and would take its time before it starts working to its potential. And it was not very late before people actually started realising the import and power of the right emanating from this particular Act. Now they seem intent on using the right enshrined in the Act for anything and everything pertaining to their civil right in democratic India.
While there were very few petitions seeking information under RTI to begin with, today there seems to be a deluge of such requests in almost all government departments and agencies. It has not only resulted in increased confidence among the general public about the utility of RTI in ferreting out information from the government on a subject of their interest, the same has also made the different government departments more transparent and responsible than they had ever been, something which was the real purport of this Act.
The many path-breaking decisions and judgements consequent to sundry appeals for information under RTI by the Central Information Commission and various State Information Commissions, the veil of secrecy hanging over the official records has slowly been lifting, resulting in substantive dilution of the draconian Official Secrets Act, 1923 which had been the last resort of a reluctant bureaucrat for denying even innocuous information to the members of common public on one or the other pretext including the one pertaining to state’s security and integrity and the larger public interest.
Now, several landmark decisions and judgements of the Central and State Information Commissions later, it is reinterpretation of the same ‘larger public interest’, which is being proffered as a ground on which various wings of central and state governments should be sharing the information with the common public of this country. Even though today the right to seek information under RTI has come into its own and has become a powerful tool for exercising one’s democratic rights, one feels that still a lot needs to be done to further strengthen and reinforce this right before it can really become a genuine weapon of popular control exercising benign influence over the different government bodies.
Even though the number of petitions requesting information under RTI has gone up by leaps and bounds, this number could be much more substantial than it is presently. Still, there is a lot which needs to be done to generate awareness among the people about their powers under RTI, though various adverse judgements of information commissions resulting in imposition of pecuniary and disciplinary action against many government servants are also creating enough awareness by way of demonstration effect.
Many government departments and bodies including judiciary have made it costlier for the hoi polloi to seek and access information. The price to seek and obtain information has been made prohibitive by many agencies defeating the very intents and purposes wherefor RTI was conceived. Since it has been left to various state governments and autonomous governments bodies to frame such rules relating to the various charges for information sharing, they have found an excuse in the same by way of making the same ridiculously high.
While these prohibitive costs to seek information do discourage non-serious information seekers, they also repel the many genuine ones who are not well-off enough to be able to foot the bill for the purpose. However, there are specific provisions in the Act about the inadvisability of charging anything from people below the poverty line. But one has to understand that there are many millions others in the country who, even though above the poverty line, are no better. These people are, at least, definitely not so better as to be able to spend a princely sum for seeking and obtaining information under RTI.
Then, there is a practical problem which has come to the fore after the requests seeking information started to flow in thick and fast. The problem relates to the shortage of staff and officers for attending such requests. It is because of this that there has been an overload of pending requests with different information commissions and government bodies.
Since there has been many landmark judgements by now wherein specific pecuniary penalties have been imposed upon many government servants for deemed deliberate failure to provide information in time and since such penalties have to footed from one’s own pockets, government staff and officers are found to be on toes now to attend to such requests and provide the requested information within the statutory 30 days’ period as per the Act.
Today, when many government departments and bodies are already reeling under the shortage of staff and officers in these times of downsizing and rationalizing of the size of the government employees, the normal functioning of these departments and bodies are severely getting hampered. As non-compliance under the Act results in personal financial loss including the fear of departmental proceedings, a government staff or officer is more than keen to attend to RTI requests before anything else.
Some of these problems have arisen also because of the fact that many government departments and bodies have still not put the requisite in-house information into the public domain as they are supposed to do under RTI. This also results in delay or outright refusal in furnishing of the desired information to the petitioners. When a request to furnish information on National Policy and Action Plan on computerization of judiciary under RTI was sent to the PIO (Public Information Officer) in the Ministry of Law and Justice, the response was “the details of implementation of the plan are still being worked out. That being so, it is not possible to give any information in the matter at this stage.”
Not only this, many government departments and bodies have still not notified the Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO), Public Information Officer (PIO) and the Appellate Authority (AA) as warranted by the Act. This has resulted in many such RTI petitions being shuffled around among various government departments and officers on the pretext that one has not been notified as APIO, PIO or AA to be able to entertain such a petition or that the desired information is not readily available in sharable form frustrating the purpose of the Act further.
There is no denying that in order to exercise the freedom of speech and expression effectively, you need an informed public opinion and it is here that the right to information comes into play. The right to information, thus, flows out of freedom of speech and expression. The Right to Information Act, 2005 is not the repository of the right to information. Its repository is the constitutional right to free speech and expression. The Right to Information Act is merely an instrument that lays down the statutory procedure in the exercise of this right. It is, therefore, necessary that all exceptions and denials of the right to information must necessarily conform to the restrictions that bear a nexus to those mentioned in Article 19 (2) and to none others.
So, there is an urgent need to do some further soul-searching as far as implementation of the Act is concerned. All the government departments and bodies should not only put all the permissible information pertaining to their establishments in readily sharable form, they should also immediately notify and properly publicise the APIO, PIO and AA for accessing information relating their offices. Also, it is advisable that such notified authorities should remain in the same office for ensuring better efficiency and accountability.
In fact, it is proposed that as far as possible, a self-contained office should have APIO, PIO and AA in the same premises. It makes the system more efficient and also makes it easier for the common public. For example, if the District Magistrate starts entertaining all RTI petitions pertaining to every office under his/her control and supervision, then he/she would be left with no time to attend to his/her normal work.
So, it is advisable that various authorities to be notified remain within the same premises. Moreover, the central and state governments should make further clarifications to ensure that the cost of seeking and obtaining information under RTI does in no case become prohibitive. Also, the entire process of moving an RTI application has to be further simplified. The phone-in system, as instituted in Bihar, should now be extended to rest of the country. This avoids a common citizens several trips to the government office. E-governance should be utilised to the maximum for the purposes of RTI.
Moreover, there shall also be a need for dedicated staff and officers to attend to RTI requests and also to pre-empt the hampering of the normal functioning of the office by engaging regular staff and officers. There is also a need for grant of specific financial grant to a government office for meeting various expenses required to be incurred for provisioning of information (e.g. xeroxing et al) and for further strengthening and reinforcing the service delivery system under RTI for being able to serve the people better.
If we are able to modify and further refine the Act, one is sure that the powers granted to a common citizen here shall go a long way in strengthening and reinforcing our democratic foundations.
Policing an Anomic Society
*Saumitra Mohan
It is widely felt that the way our police is organised presently is eminently unsuited for the requirements of a liberal democratic country, strengthened by an active civil society and a very vibrant media. As of now, our police seem to be functioning in a highly authoritarian way informed by a feudal mindset and almost without any sense of service towards the people. At least, this is the popular perception of police and this is definitely something very uncharacteristic of a democracy.
There have been many incidents in recent times which have brought the role of our police into question, pointing fingers at the way they function. The police have found itself in the dock for the manner in which they have responded to many crisis-like situations or to the multifarious law and order problems. Police has been on the mat for the reported/alleged brutality attributed to them and has been accordingly been the butt of revulsion and criticism from the media and the civil society.
The police organisation has recently undergone a makeover across the country in keeping with the direction of the Supreme Court, based on the recommendations of Soli Sorabjee Committee, Justice Malimmath Committee and National Human Rights Committee. Now police appointment and tenure are subject to a more sedate and sensible Establishment Board rather than to the whims and fancies of the political class. There has also been the constitution of a State Security Commission and a Police Complaints Board in many states to ward off undue intereference in the functioning of the police and to entertain public complaints against the police. But their functioning over the past few months does not inspire much confidence in the reforms envisaged and effected with so much of tom-tomming.
After all, how do you explain the fact that even today a common man finds it difficult to lodge an FIR, something which should be normal and routine? But the fact remains that the acceptance of an FIR is often subject to many considerations and is accepted only after a few palms are greased or when the same becomes absolutely unavoidable. And even after one succeeds in lodging an FIR, one has to again cool one’s heel for aeons before some action is taken and, in fact, more often than not, no action is taken for a long time unless and until the same relates to cognisable/heinous crimes. For inquiry to commence, continue and culminate in mundane matters, often one has to go from pillar to post to in search of justice. The all-India rate of conviction of the crimes recorded and prosecuted still hover around a pathetic six to eight per cent.
It is this pathology of the system which has led to recrudescence of popular violence vis-à-vis petty crimes and criminals as seen recently from Kolkata to Agra, from Meerut to Nawada. A society desperate for security and protection for its life and property today finds itself helpless enough to dabble in uncivilised ways of dispensing quick justice. The very fact that certain members of our civil society feel encouraged today to take law into their hands also point to their belief of escaping the mythical long arm of the law. Public beating and shaving of two jawans in Jammu and Kashmir for alleged rape attempt, the beating and dragging of a chain-snatcher by the police on the roads of Bhagalpur, lynching of eleven petty thieves to death in Vaishali, beating up a local goon for alleged eve-teasing and harassment by local women in Pune, numerous other instances of locals lynching a rogue or a thief, instance of beating up the boss for alleged sexual harassment, beating up professors in Patna and Bombay for alleged eve-teasing, instances of beating up policemen for alleged failure or connivance – many such instances point to the increasing penchant of people to take law in their hands and all this definitely has something to do with the way our police functions.
Even though as an economy we may be growing at a break-neck speed of over 9 per cent, but the truth remains that the distribution of resources and assets is still quite skewed in our society, thereby making it a highly inegalitarian society, further rattled by sundry divisions and deprivations including problems like casteism, communalism, terrorism, naxalism, proliferation of small arms, regionalism and what not. All these problems coupled with a revolution of rising expectations triggered by the media-induced demonstration effect have led to growing demands on the state and with the state failing to meet those demands, the same results in the growing law and order problems, for which our law enforcement agencies are not adequately equipped.
Earlier the standard way of police managing a law and order crisis was to tackle the problem with the employment of violence and force, but now with human rights bodies, NGOs and Fourth Estate breathing down their throat, employment of force has ceased to be an option. At least, the same has to be used very sparingly. In fact, in these testing times, a high-handed police force has often been found at the wrong end of the stick as found in many instances where people have not hesitated to drag the police to court for the alleged human rights violations. Not only that, the better equipped and organised criminal gangs have often proved to be having an upper hand over the police, at least as far as the latter is supposed to play by the rules and the former is not.
That is why, you have more instances of policemen being killed in a mine blast or in a shoot-out or by getting trapped in the midst of an irate mob today than ever before. Today, we have an under-equipped, under-trained, under-motivated and under-resourced police force set against a highly demanding society, increasingly complex law and order situations where the difference between criminals and civilians often blur and against a very motivated and organised cartel of criminals. The politician-criminal nexus has made the situation worse with policemen often finding itself caught between a cleft stick. More often than not, the policeman finds it convenient to join the nexus and, thus, comes up what has come to be known as a police-criminal-politician nexus, something which has been playing havoc with our body politic.
It is because of all this that today it is unanimously agreed by all and one that our police organisation is in urgent need of a look-up, in keeping with the requirements of time, to be better able to face up to the newer challenges to the system. It needs to be modernised, reoriented, retrained and better equipped to tackle the complex law and order situations.
Today, crime and criminals have to be tackled not only within the confinement of one’s district, but goes beyond and the same today straddles many districts, many states and also, many countries, often with implications for inter-national relations.
Increasing expectations of the hoi polloi regarding prompt and effective police response to any situation of violence or distress and the necessity to secure scientific evidence that shall stand scrutiny in the legal system warrant the police to optimally harness science and state-of-the-art technology for criminal investigation. Hence, there is an imperative need to respond to contemporary challenges and demands by way of better training and spruced-up infrastructure. The qualitative improvement in the professional competence of police requires corresponding attitudinal change informed by the positive values of public service. The content of police training needs to change from a focus merely on law and order to greater sensitivity, appreciation and understanding of the human psyche and behaviour, coupled with better empathetic communication skills and development of pro-active citizen-oriented activities.
The already complex law and order situation is further worsened by a lopsided distribution of the police force. The ratio of police personnel to the total area served is also very poor and varies across the states. The all-India average stands at 42 per 100 sq km. Take the example of Chhattisgarh where this figure is just 17 per 100 sq km. For an area of 39,114 sq km, the five Police Districts of Bastar division have a total sanctioned strength of 2,197 policemen (5.62 policemen per 100 km). Actual availability is just 1,389, nearly 37 per cent short of the authorised numbers, yielding a ratio of just 3.55 policemen per 100 sq km.
With one policeman for 728 people, the police in India are stretched more than their counterparts in other countries. As per a report, there are nearly 6.5 lakh villages being policed by only 13,000 police stations. There are districts that run into hundreds of square kilometres, in one instance covered by merely six police stations. The government status paper on internal security situation recommends urgent steps to be taken to improve the existing national average of police population ratio of 1:728. Not only this, the teeth to tail ratio i.e. officer-rank ratio is also very poor and needs urgent attention if we really mean business about policing this humongous country.
Be it the spate of naxal attacks, terrorist violence or instances of police brutality across the country, the police seemingly appears to have been caught on the wrong foot. Reforms or no reforms, police is actually functioning in the same way as in the pre-reforms period. The positive pay-offs from the police reforms shall take quite some time, if at all, to translate into real positives. But the issue at hand is to provide functional autonomy to the police, unencumbered by interference from any corner.
For police reforms or for any reforms to be effective, there is first a need to effect change in the psyche of the police personnel and that is always a reflection of the civil society. The civil society led by the urban middle class in this country is still quite confused about the value system that guides it. There are a lot of contradictions in the way we respond to different incidents and situations. While many still commend and recommend the success of police action in Punjab in dealing with the terrorists there or with the naxals in West Bengal, there are many who have been rapping police on its knuckles for the alleged encounter deaths in Punjab, Gujarat or elsewhere.
The police alertness in bringing the culprits to book in such celebrated cases as the hit and run BMW cases, Priyadarshini Mattoo case, R.K.Sharma, Bitty Mohanty, Jessica Lal, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan has also been because of the constant media glare and civil society activism. The civil society and media have been having a salutary influence on police performance lately, a positive sign indeed.
So, we really need to decide as to what do we really want. Whether we want our police to continue functioning the way they have been or we mean business here. If so, there are a whole lot of things which need to be done than merely effecting some cosmetic changes here and there. We need to do something about correcting not only the police population ratio but also the teeth to tail ratio. The basic infrastructure, the weaponry, sophisticated gadgetry and equipment, better training and better motivation are the least required for policing an increasingly anomic society peopled by an impatient public wanting an instant justice. The government needs to think innovatively and creatively to generate resources for putting in place all these required for better policing including thinking of paid policing and taking user charges for certain services related to policing. One just hopes that something shall urgently be done about it all so that we can not only secure the basic liberty and life of our people, but can also recognise the true service and sacrifice made by our uniformed countrymen in policing this country.
*Saumitra Mohan
It is widely felt that the way our police is organised presently is eminently unsuited for the requirements of a liberal democratic country, strengthened by an active civil society and a very vibrant media. As of now, our police seem to be functioning in a highly authoritarian way informed by a feudal mindset and almost without any sense of service towards the people. At least, this is the popular perception of police and this is definitely something very uncharacteristic of a democracy.
There have been many incidents in recent times which have brought the role of our police into question, pointing fingers at the way they function. The police have found itself in the dock for the manner in which they have responded to many crisis-like situations or to the multifarious law and order problems. Police has been on the mat for the reported/alleged brutality attributed to them and has been accordingly been the butt of revulsion and criticism from the media and the civil society.
The police organisation has recently undergone a makeover across the country in keeping with the direction of the Supreme Court, based on the recommendations of Soli Sorabjee Committee, Justice Malimmath Committee and National Human Rights Committee. Now police appointment and tenure are subject to a more sedate and sensible Establishment Board rather than to the whims and fancies of the political class. There has also been the constitution of a State Security Commission and a Police Complaints Board in many states to ward off undue intereference in the functioning of the police and to entertain public complaints against the police. But their functioning over the past few months does not inspire much confidence in the reforms envisaged and effected with so much of tom-tomming.
After all, how do you explain the fact that even today a common man finds it difficult to lodge an FIR, something which should be normal and routine? But the fact remains that the acceptance of an FIR is often subject to many considerations and is accepted only after a few palms are greased or when the same becomes absolutely unavoidable. And even after one succeeds in lodging an FIR, one has to again cool one’s heel for aeons before some action is taken and, in fact, more often than not, no action is taken for a long time unless and until the same relates to cognisable/heinous crimes. For inquiry to commence, continue and culminate in mundane matters, often one has to go from pillar to post to in search of justice. The all-India rate of conviction of the crimes recorded and prosecuted still hover around a pathetic six to eight per cent.
It is this pathology of the system which has led to recrudescence of popular violence vis-à-vis petty crimes and criminals as seen recently from Kolkata to Agra, from Meerut to Nawada. A society desperate for security and protection for its life and property today finds itself helpless enough to dabble in uncivilised ways of dispensing quick justice. The very fact that certain members of our civil society feel encouraged today to take law into their hands also point to their belief of escaping the mythical long arm of the law. Public beating and shaving of two jawans in Jammu and Kashmir for alleged rape attempt, the beating and dragging of a chain-snatcher by the police on the roads of Bhagalpur, lynching of eleven petty thieves to death in Vaishali, beating up a local goon for alleged eve-teasing and harassment by local women in Pune, numerous other instances of locals lynching a rogue or a thief, instance of beating up the boss for alleged sexual harassment, beating up professors in Patna and Bombay for alleged eve-teasing, instances of beating up policemen for alleged failure or connivance – many such instances point to the increasing penchant of people to take law in their hands and all this definitely has something to do with the way our police functions.
Even though as an economy we may be growing at a break-neck speed of over 9 per cent, but the truth remains that the distribution of resources and assets is still quite skewed in our society, thereby making it a highly inegalitarian society, further rattled by sundry divisions and deprivations including problems like casteism, communalism, terrorism, naxalism, proliferation of small arms, regionalism and what not. All these problems coupled with a revolution of rising expectations triggered by the media-induced demonstration effect have led to growing demands on the state and with the state failing to meet those demands, the same results in the growing law and order problems, for which our law enforcement agencies are not adequately equipped.
Earlier the standard way of police managing a law and order crisis was to tackle the problem with the employment of violence and force, but now with human rights bodies, NGOs and Fourth Estate breathing down their throat, employment of force has ceased to be an option. At least, the same has to be used very sparingly. In fact, in these testing times, a high-handed police force has often been found at the wrong end of the stick as found in many instances where people have not hesitated to drag the police to court for the alleged human rights violations. Not only that, the better equipped and organised criminal gangs have often proved to be having an upper hand over the police, at least as far as the latter is supposed to play by the rules and the former is not.
That is why, you have more instances of policemen being killed in a mine blast or in a shoot-out or by getting trapped in the midst of an irate mob today than ever before. Today, we have an under-equipped, under-trained, under-motivated and under-resourced police force set against a highly demanding society, increasingly complex law and order situations where the difference between criminals and civilians often blur and against a very motivated and organised cartel of criminals. The politician-criminal nexus has made the situation worse with policemen often finding itself caught between a cleft stick. More often than not, the policeman finds it convenient to join the nexus and, thus, comes up what has come to be known as a police-criminal-politician nexus, something which has been playing havoc with our body politic.
It is because of all this that today it is unanimously agreed by all and one that our police organisation is in urgent need of a look-up, in keeping with the requirements of time, to be better able to face up to the newer challenges to the system. It needs to be modernised, reoriented, retrained and better equipped to tackle the complex law and order situations.
Today, crime and criminals have to be tackled not only within the confinement of one’s district, but goes beyond and the same today straddles many districts, many states and also, many countries, often with implications for inter-national relations.
Increasing expectations of the hoi polloi regarding prompt and effective police response to any situation of violence or distress and the necessity to secure scientific evidence that shall stand scrutiny in the legal system warrant the police to optimally harness science and state-of-the-art technology for criminal investigation. Hence, there is an imperative need to respond to contemporary challenges and demands by way of better training and spruced-up infrastructure. The qualitative improvement in the professional competence of police requires corresponding attitudinal change informed by the positive values of public service. The content of police training needs to change from a focus merely on law and order to greater sensitivity, appreciation and understanding of the human psyche and behaviour, coupled with better empathetic communication skills and development of pro-active citizen-oriented activities.
The already complex law and order situation is further worsened by a lopsided distribution of the police force. The ratio of police personnel to the total area served is also very poor and varies across the states. The all-India average stands at 42 per 100 sq km. Take the example of Chhattisgarh where this figure is just 17 per 100 sq km. For an area of 39,114 sq km, the five Police Districts of Bastar division have a total sanctioned strength of 2,197 policemen (5.62 policemen per 100 km). Actual availability is just 1,389, nearly 37 per cent short of the authorised numbers, yielding a ratio of just 3.55 policemen per 100 sq km.
With one policeman for 728 people, the police in India are stretched more than their counterparts in other countries. As per a report, there are nearly 6.5 lakh villages being policed by only 13,000 police stations. There are districts that run into hundreds of square kilometres, in one instance covered by merely six police stations. The government status paper on internal security situation recommends urgent steps to be taken to improve the existing national average of police population ratio of 1:728. Not only this, the teeth to tail ratio i.e. officer-rank ratio is also very poor and needs urgent attention if we really mean business about policing this humongous country.
Be it the spate of naxal attacks, terrorist violence or instances of police brutality across the country, the police seemingly appears to have been caught on the wrong foot. Reforms or no reforms, police is actually functioning in the same way as in the pre-reforms period. The positive pay-offs from the police reforms shall take quite some time, if at all, to translate into real positives. But the issue at hand is to provide functional autonomy to the police, unencumbered by interference from any corner.
For police reforms or for any reforms to be effective, there is first a need to effect change in the psyche of the police personnel and that is always a reflection of the civil society. The civil society led by the urban middle class in this country is still quite confused about the value system that guides it. There are a lot of contradictions in the way we respond to different incidents and situations. While many still commend and recommend the success of police action in Punjab in dealing with the terrorists there or with the naxals in West Bengal, there are many who have been rapping police on its knuckles for the alleged encounter deaths in Punjab, Gujarat or elsewhere.
The police alertness in bringing the culprits to book in such celebrated cases as the hit and run BMW cases, Priyadarshini Mattoo case, R.K.Sharma, Bitty Mohanty, Jessica Lal, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan has also been because of the constant media glare and civil society activism. The civil society and media have been having a salutary influence on police performance lately, a positive sign indeed.
So, we really need to decide as to what do we really want. Whether we want our police to continue functioning the way they have been or we mean business here. If so, there are a whole lot of things which need to be done than merely effecting some cosmetic changes here and there. We need to do something about correcting not only the police population ratio but also the teeth to tail ratio. The basic infrastructure, the weaponry, sophisticated gadgetry and equipment, better training and better motivation are the least required for policing an increasingly anomic society peopled by an impatient public wanting an instant justice. The government needs to think innovatively and creatively to generate resources for putting in place all these required for better policing including thinking of paid policing and taking user charges for certain services related to policing. One just hopes that something shall urgently be done about it all so that we can not only secure the basic liberty and life of our people, but can also recognise the true service and sacrifice made by our uniformed countrymen in policing this country.
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