Know 10 revelations through RTI that left India stumped

New Delhi: The Right to Information Act which came into effect in 2005 seeks to ensure transparency between citizens and government bodies. According to the Act, any citizen may request information from a public authority which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to pro-actively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.The sunshine law that came into effect 13 October 2005 was a means to check corruption. After its enactment, several revelations came to light through RTI, that have shocked the country.Here are ten big revelations brought forward through RTI since its inception: 1. Scams : RTI is the key to exposing various scams of the corrupt politicians of this country. 2G scam, CWG scam, toilet scam, Adarsh housing society scam, Indian rupee symbol scam, MGNREGA in Bihar, Pratibha Patil land controversy, Kerosene scam in Orissa, they list of exposes by RTI is endless.In fact, many RTI activists have been killed or threatened for whistle blowing which calls for another law to protect them. 2. Increase in web censorship: India has become one of the worst countries in terms of internet censorship. Official statistics revealed under RTI by the Department of Information Technology show that government has time and again indulged in extra-legal censorship. In fact, in April 2011, Department of Information Technology passed a rule that allowed any person to get content removed from the Internet by writing to any intermediary within 36 hours, with no questions asked, and no intimation to the content owner (hence no question of challenge).The Indian government nearly doubled its requests to Google for removal of content in the second half of 2012 as compared to the first six months, the seventh transparency report from the Internet giant has noted. Most of these requests for content removal in 2012 centered on the content that defamed the ruling government and the disturbance in the North-East region. The Indian government was among 20 countries to request for the removal of the controversial film Innocence of Muslims from YouTube. (The video though listed is not available for streaming in India). 3. Hockey is not our national game: The query was filed by a class-VII student, Aishwarya Parashar. Aishwarya had sought information on a government order pertaining to India's national game. She had filed an RTI query with the information officer at the Prime Minister's Office in May this year. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, in its reply a few days back, said the ministry has not declared any sport the national game. The information was sent to Aishwarya by the additional secretary in the Sports Ministry, Shiv Pratap Singh. Government has taken no steps to officially declare with a notification that Hockey is the National Game. 4. Gandhi is not officially Father of the Nation : The 10 year old Aiswariya, had filed an RTI query seeking information on Gandhi Ji's title of father of nation. In a written reply, the government said that Mahatma Gandhi cannot be accorded the 'Father of the Nation' title by government as the Constitution does not permit any titles except educational and military ones. While giving reference to the Article 18 (1) of the Constitution, the MHA had said that it does not permit any titles except education and military ones. The MHA had transferred Aishwarya's appeal to the National Archives of India.The Central Information Commissioner Basant Seth had stated, "There is no order/document on record by which Gandhiji was given the title of "Rastrapita". Gandhiji is reverently called the "Father of the Nation/Rastrapita" by the entire country. The title is not dependent on the presumed presence or absence of official records."5. August 15, Jan 26 and Oct 2 are not national holidays: Aishwarya Parashar filed an RTI query to PMO requesting a copy of the particular government order (GO) that specified national holidays. After passing through a couple of departments, finally Department of Personnel and Training answered that they could not find any government order that notified that the above three days were government holidays. Therefore Aug 15, Jan 26 and Oct 2 are not official government holidays. 6. Incorrect national anthem : A PIL was filed by retired professor Shreekant Malushte who contended that the word 'Sindh' in the Anthem was replaced by 'Sindhu' by the government in January 1950. The word ‘Sindh' was replaced by ‘Sindhu' considering the fact that the region was part of Pakistan partitioned from India. The newly replaced word Sindhu denotes the river that originated in Pakistan but flows through the Indian valleys. However, the National Anthem continues to be sung and broadcast in a wrong manner by using incorrect words," his petition stated. The court had earlier said that the usage of 'Sindh' might be a simple mistake and not a deliberate act on the part of the government to insult the country or the Anthem. 7.Unsolved mysteries- Shastri's and Bose's death: When Lal Bahadur Shastri's son demanded government to unravel the mystery surrounding his father's death via an RTI appeal, PM's office refused to make the information public on the context that it could ruin foreign relations and violate Parliamentary Privilege. Similarly, Anuj Dhar of Delhi-based Mission Netaji requested documents and records that government held in its possession on the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister replied “On verification of the classified files held by PMO, it is held that their disclosure will prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries.” Therefore, it further shrouds the mystery surrounding their death, adding to the consistent and strong consensus that Shastri was killed and Bose never died in the plane crash of Taipei. It compounds two theories that there were foreign forces at play who wanted them dead. 8. 11 children go missing every hour :An NGO called Bachpan Bachao Andolan, did a survey on number of missing children. The survey was done with the help of data using RTI filed from 392 districts across the country. The NGO claimed 1, 17,480 children went missing across the country between January, 2008, to January, 2010, as per data collected from government agencies. 9. Highest number of Indian prisoners are in Saudi ArabiaAs many as 6,569 Indian nationals are currently lodged in prisons of 67 foreign countries, including 254 in Pakistan reveals a RTI query.The Arab countries topped the list with Saudi Arabia (1691), Kuwait (1161) and UAE (1012), according to the information provided by the MEA on April 22 to lawyer and RTI activist DB Binu.Italy has 121 Indian prisoners. The list also showed that UK has 426, USA 155, China 157, Bangladesh 62, Afghanistan 28, Bahrain 18 and Nepal 377 Indian prisoners. 10. IIM reveals admission criteria: Despite an impressive percentile Vaishnavi Kasturi, a visually-impaired student, in 2007 was denied a seat in the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, one of the country's premier management institutes. She then filed an RTI application to request the institution to disclose the admission process. Though Vaishnavi did not get admission in any of the IIMs, her doubts over admission procedure were clarified.In a response to the query, the Chairman said “CAT scores are just one-fifth of the criteria for admissions. Forty per cent weight age is given for class X, XII and bachelor's scores. Work experience is given weight age too but it's mostly performance in the group discussion and interview that counts which is up to 35 per cent, plus 5 per cent weight age is there if you have done a chartered accountancy course.”