If I Fail, Please Abuse Me

[sidmis]

If I Fail, Please Abuse Me
as reported by Smruti Koppikar | OutLook India

So says Shailesh Gandhi, the RTI crusader who will now be Central Information Commissioner


Shailesh Gandhi—IIT-Bombay alumnus, first-generation entrepreneur, well-known Right to Information (RTI) activist—dons another hat on September 18. When sworn in as a Central Information Commissioner in Delhi, he will become the first and only non-bureaucrat to hold the constitutional post. "I have no idea who selected me and why," says Gandhi with characteristic candour. "But now that I am there (till 2012), my priorities are to bring down pending appeals because pendency can kill the RTI Act."

Few have seen the RTI law in action from as close quarters as Gandhi. Single-handedly for four years, without fuss, from his modest Mumbai home he has asked hard-hitting and embarrassing questions to those in high offices. Gandhi's goal: to make the government accountable to its citizens. A veteran of more than 800 RTI applications, Gandhi lectures widely to show citizens how simple the RTI process is. "We have to become a participatory democracy, it's not enough to vote. We must monitor those whom we vote," he says.

Gandhi, 61, who sold his fully-indigenous plastics business three years ago to concentrate on "something socially relevant", will take only Re 1 as salary. His moment of truth, he says, came at an iit alumni event 10-12 years ago when a former professor asked him if he still nursed complaints about society that he did in his 20s. "I realised: I am society. And it's still as messy," he says. A few years later, RTI fired him up.

Gandhi sees RTI as "the best tool in the hands of a citizen, with potential to change the face of India". Staunchly refusing to start or join an organisation, Gandhi has demonstrated that a tenacious battle often starts with a simple query. From police commissioners, charity commissioners, chief ministers to the PMO—his RTI application on the PM's Relief Fund is pending in appeal—Gandhi has spared none. "If three crore Indians spend an hour a month and just Rs 40 to convert their cribs against the system into RTI applications, and if only 30 per cent succeed in making an impact, it's still a significant cumulative change in our system," he says.

Like many in the RTI movement, Gandhi believes pendency will damage people's enthusiasm. "Delhi has 8,500 appeals pending; Maharashtra about 16,000. Why should we accept this delay," he asks. His number-crunching shows a commissioner can dispose 4,000 appeals in a year. "Commissioners are not clerks, they must deliver results. My personal guarantee is no pendency beyond three months." Gandhi accounts for the possibility of failure. "I am an activist, but this is an opportunity to do something positive," he says. "If I fail, please abuse me."

'If I Fail, Please Abuse Me' : outlookindia.com

[shan]

Will go on say , that that if you fail , we as a society & the system should be ashamed.

[karira]

As many of you are aware from my posts, I regularly read as many decisions of the CIC and some SIC's, as possible. If I miss some, I try my best to recoup and clear the backlog when I am free or while traveling.

For the benefit of members, I will study all the orders/decisions of the 4 new IC's in the CIC for the first month. The exercise will be repeated every three months to see if there is any change in the pattern of the orders.

Will share anything interesting with the forum and if possible also post statistical study of the orders.
(A similar statistical study of the orders of the AP CIC is being posted today in the "Appeals and Decisions" section)

[vijendra singh]

Mr Gandhi can never fail; anybody can predict that. His one disposal of appeal will be equal to 1000 disposals. His decisions will be remembered by citizens & also by the other 200 ICs of India. Now PIOs will be afraid of CIC & consequently will stop to deny the demanded info to the applicants. Hence the appeals/ complaints will minimise automatically.