Meet Delhi RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, holder of Guinness world record

New Delhi: In a small home-cum-office in Dariba, Chandni Chowk, heritage place of the old city; lives a man named Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who holds the Guinness world record for writing maximum letters to the editors of newspapers.A small office with piles and piles of files stacked, a desktop computer right next to his bed and a passion to change the system through his letter missiles, this is Subhash Chandra's life in a simple sentence.This writer tried to probe into the inside story of this man's life, what inspired him to work in this direction and what drives him to work further despite insufficient financial support.Agrawal, 64, says “it's the adrenaline that drives me to work with vigor despite any support from an institution. And of course my success stories which have motivated me.”“Many instances motivated me to do so, once I had given suggestions on poll reforms. The then Vice President Muhammad Hidayatullah, liked my suggestion so much that he sent a personal letter to me praising my suggestions. The envelope was self addressed and had the Vice President's personal ticket. The letter was handwritten by the Vice President. Muhammed Hidayatullah became India's Vice President after retiring as Chief Justice of India."These praises motivated me to work in this direction” adds Agrawal.A cloth merchant by profession, Agrawal sacrificed his dream of joining the IAS for his family. He is a graduate in mechanical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and that is where his journey of writing letters started. "I had started writing letters to the editor in 1967, out which my passion for RTI developed. My first letter to the editor was written when I had an unpleasant experience of traveling in a DTC bus when I was in college. "I was a mechanical engineering student of Delhi College of Engineering when it was situated at Kashmiri Gate and used to travel in DTC bus from Mall Road to the Red Fort.“The conductor used to charge 20 paise for a 10 paise bus ticket and he used to earn 10 paise on each ticket. He did not issue 10-paise tickets unless anyone paid him a 10-paise bribe. When I complained about this before the conductor, he snubbed and insulted me."I got furious and felt that he was causing loss to the public exchequer. So I wrote a letter to the editor for the Hindi newspaper Dainik Hindustan at that time. "I was very young, my age was 17, so I was scared of doing it as I felt that writing against government officials may land me up in trouble but somehow I wrote it. "But I did not mention my residential address in the letter as I was scared that authorities might catch hold of me. So, I wrote my address as Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi so that nobody could locate me. "The letter got published immediately and a DTC van came to my college and I ran away as I thought they had come to arrest me. "Next day, when I entered college from the back door, my friends told me that the DTC employees had come for apologizing for the insult that I had faced. Then, I realized how important the role of media was. "Then I started writing more letters and eventually my letters started getting published in newspapers” said Agrawal. Agrawal has filed the maximum number of RTI (Right To Information) applications so far ( about 6,000 petitions till the first week of March, 2014). The ‘Badshah of RTI' describes his beginning of the RTI journey, “My first RTI petition was personal. My family had to suffer judicial injustice for 16 long years. "My uncle's son in law was a judge in Supreme Court. My uncle had filed false case against my father because his son-in-law was an SC judge. "But some judges left behind evidences through which I got a strong reason to complain against them in 2005. "On 3rd January, I filed a complaint against the judge and then also sent it to the President but no action was taken. " Then, Arvind Kejriwal told me that an RTI act was coming up through which we can ask anything about public authorities. So I filed an RTI application."Fifteen days passed, still I did not get any response. So I went to Supreme Court. The then Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal had rejected my RTI query saying SC judge cannot be questioned under RTI procedure. " And this was the same person whom the government later confessed unfit to be the chairperson of NHRC. " RTI has helped in highlighting malpractices and corruption in the judiciary.”Agrawal has given many suggestions to the public authorities that are practical and which have a radical approach.“Government had implemented many suggestions of mine, for instance, I had raised concern over the irregular timings of the Taj Express that runs from Delhi to Agra." I had suggested running the train on the lines of prestigious day track trains that ran from Chennai to Bangalore in which full utilization of train services could be done. The railway ministry liked my suggestion. "Nickel coins were misused by melting them when their metal value, face value depreciates. "I measured each coin and found a huge disparity between 25p and 50p diameter, but not between 50p and Re 1. So they had very uneven sizes. "So, I suggested to the authorities concerned to use stainless steel for the coins or any metal which did not melt. "Also a common diameter difference should be taken care of while making coins."The RBI team then came to me and found the suggestion useful and implemented it.”But what lacks in his campaign against reforming the system is financial aid from any institution. “I had written to many companies for institutional support like Infosys and Reliance but none came forward for support. "So it is very difficult to work without any institutional support. Now, I have been sent to college for lectures, train public authorities. "Arvind Kejriwal had an institutional support, perhaps by Infosys or Tata. Until and unless I have an institutional support, my staff can not work properly. "My campaign against the corruption in the country cannot grow unless I have institutional support.”His repeated words that the system is corrupt and follows the ‘chalta hai' attitude shows he wants to bring a change but is helpless.About the current political situation in the country, he says “Our politicians have redefined democracy. It is a democracy of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians”.