Right to Know, Right to Live (English)

8/9/2019 Right to Know, Right to Live (English)

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Pblished bThe Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project717 East River ParkwayMinneapolis, MN 55455 USAwww.cvt.org, www.newtactics.org

Ntebk Series Editr

Nancy L. Pearson

Desin and cpeditinSusan Everson

Edited bNicole Palasz

CpeditinC.C. Strom

LatKristin Vann Sands

2008 Center r Victims TrtreThis publication may be freely reproduced in print andin electronic form as long as this copyright notice appears on all copies.

DisclaimerThe views expressed in this report do not necessarily reect those o the New Tactics in Human Rights Project.The project does not advocate specifc tactics or policies.


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The Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project

717 East River RoadMinneapolis, MN 55455 USA

www.cvt.org, www.newtactics.org

4Author biographies

5Letter from the New Tactics Training Manager

6Introduction6The origins of the movement

9Strategic goal and principles

12Dharnas18An intermediate success

19An evolving strategy: advocacy and the law

21Strategic impact22Lessons learned

24Conclusion


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4

AcknledementThis notebook is the outcome o a process, a struggleand an experience o collective learning in which theMKSS has been involved, all o which have shaped andinuenced the Campaign or the Right to Inorma-tion. It is dedicated to all those who have spoken up

with extraordinary courage to make the slogan koitho munde bolo (someone speak up), a reality.It is also dedicated to all those who will, in years tocome, use this resource to speak with courage againstinjustice, inequality and oppression.

As a part o the MKSS and this process, I am onlya chronicler o the shared learning o a committedgroup o workers. I am privileged to have been parto this process, which gave me an opportunity tolearn and record these happenings. I have also learnedenormously rom various members o the MKSS who,despite appearing ordinary to most people, have ledextraordinary lives. For this I shall always be indebtedto them.

Madr Kisan Shakti Sanathan (MKSS)The MKSS is a part o the non-party political process in India. It accepts no institutional unds, Indian or oreign.The MKSS depends on mass-based support, though there are only 15 ull time workers, mostly rom the area. Theull-time sta workers earn an honorarium o Rs.73 ($1.50) per day, which is based on the statutory minimum wagepaid to unskilled labourers in Rajasthan.

The MKSS also runs fve air price shops in the market towns in which it works. These shops were set up to ensurethat market orces do not exploit the poor, and began with the support o local people who gave interest-ree loansrom Rs.10 onwards to be returned in a years time. Each o these shops now contributes towards the honorarium oone worker in the MKSS.

Campaigns are ully supported by public contributions in cash and kind. Conscious eorts are made to maintain asimple and rugal ethos or living and work.

For any urther details regarding the MKSS, you can contact us at:

Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)Village Devdungri, Post Barar,

District Rajsamand,Rajasthan 313341 IndiaPhone: 91- 2909 243 25491 2951 250 180 / 250 655E-mail :- [email protected] or [email protected]

The MKSS is closely associated with the National Campaign or Peoples Right to Inormation (NCPRI) and theRight to Food campaigns. Their Web sites are:www.righttoinformation.infowww.righttofoodindia.org

Sma KidambiSowmya Kidambi has a Masters Degree in Social Work(Urban and Rural Community Development) romthe Tata Institute o Social Sciences. She was a ulltime worker with the Sangathan or eight years, andcontinues to be a member o the organization. She has

worked with the MKSS since 1998, and is currentlyits representative on an assignment as Social Develop-ment Specialist with the Strategies and PerormanceInnovations Unit, Department o Rural Development,Government o Andhra Pradesh (India) on institution-alizing the Social Audit process as part o the National

Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.


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Riht t Kn, Riht t Live: Bildin a campain r the riht t inrmatin and accntabilit

1 January 2008

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the New Tactics in Human Rights Tactical Notebook Series! In each notebook a human rights practitionerdescribes an innovative tactic that was used successully in advancing human rights. The authors are part o the broadand diverse human rights movement including non-government and government perspectives, educators, law en-orcement personnel, truth and reconciliation processes, womens rights and mental health advocates. They have bothadapted and pioneered tactics that have contributed to human rights in their home countries. In addition, they haveutilized tactics that when adapted can be applied in other countries and other situations to address a variety o issues.

Each notebook contains detailed inormation on how the author and his or her organization achieved what they did.We want to inspire other human rights practitioners to think tactically and to broaden the realm o tactics consid-ered to eectively advance human rights.

This notebook will discuss how Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has been deeply involved in a collectiveprocess which has shaped and inuenced the Campaign or the Right to Inormation in India. MKSS makes the casethat without access to inormation and transparency there can be no genuine participation o all members o society,particularly the poor, in democracy. The right to know and actual transparency o inormation provides the ability todemand and access rights.

The entire series o Tactical Notebooks is available online at www.newtactics.org. Additional notebooks are alreadyavailable and others will continue to be added over time. On our web site you will also fnd other tools, including asearchable database o tactics, a discussion orum or human rights practitioners and inormation about our workshopsand symposium. To subscribe to the New Tactics newsletter, please send an e-mail to: [email protected]

The New Tactics in Human Rights Project is an international initiative led by a diverse group o organizations andpractitioners rom around the world. The project is coordinated by the Center or Victims o Torture (CVT) and grewout o our experiences as a creator o new tactics and as a treatment center that also advocates or the protection o hu-man rights rom a unique positionone o healing and reclaiming civic leadership.

We hope that you will fnd these notebooks inormational and thought provoking.

Sincerely,

Nancy L. PearsonNew Tactics Project Manager


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IntrdctinIn May 2005, the Indian Parliament passed the Rightto Information Act, which came into effect on October13, 2005. This act empowers citizens to exercise their

sovereign democratic right, under the Indian constitu-tion, to access information and thereby ensure thattheir government is accountable to them. The Right to

Information Act of 2005 applies to the national, stateand local governments of India, and provides citizenswith access to government records. Under the act,government ofcials will be fned or have disciplinaryactions taken against them if they refuse or delay arequest for information, provide false information, ordestroy information. (http://www.righttoinformation.info/doc/rti_act_2005.doc)

Simple as the outcome may seem, the battle for thislegislation has been long and arduous. The issue hadbeen raised and presented in the public domain forover a decade. If one compares this to other campaigns,

success has nevertheless come sooner than expected.A member of our organization Mazdoor Kisan Shakti

Sangathan (MKSS, the Union for the Empowerment ofPeasants and Labourers), Aruna Roy, says that when theMKSS was sitting on dharna [sit-in] in Beawar in 1996,

she was contacted by L.C. Jain, a well-known Gandhianand civil rights activist. Jain congratulated the MKSS onbeginning the struggle, but predicted that they wouldnot get the legislation in her lifetime.

No one organization or individual, however, can claimthe success of the Right to Information as solely theirs.The campaign for the right to transparency and infor-mation has a long history. Mr. V.P. Singh (Prime Ministerof India from 1989 to 1990) moved the Government toframe a Right to Information law. Other civil societygroups and civil rights activists campaigned for it. What

has been signifcantly dierent about this campaign isthat poor people made a connection among deprivation,endemic poverty, exploitation, denial of participationin institutions of governance with secrecy, opaqueness,and unaccountable governance. Their slogan says it all:The right to know, the right to live.

Access to livelihood, wages, medicine and other es-sentials inspired the workers and peasants in centralRajasthan to protest against the opaqueness of thelocal government. The Right to Information (RTI)campaign of the MKSS is symbiotically connectedto an understanding that without information andtransparency there can be no genuine participationof the poor in democracy, no ability to demand andaccess their rights. The Right to Information Act isthe result of a collective effortof organizationsand people who battled at the grassroots, in thevillages and in urban areas. Many helped draft thelaw, some helped with critical input or providedthe space and infrastructure, and yet others gavemonetary contributions. So the credit is shared by alarge group. The contribution of the Mazdoor KisanShakti Sangathan is one of many.

In this notebook I describe the origins of the right toinformation campaign in India from our organizations

perspective and experience. You will see how our organi-zation began with a strategy of advocating for minimumwage payments for local labourers, but subsequently

shifted to mobilizing local populations to demand accessto public records that exposed extensive corruption andabuse of power in our state of Rajasthan, India. Morerecently, our strategy has again changed to engagement

with the political process, as we have joined a nationallobbying effort to change legislation governing theright to information and supporting transparent, ac-countable candidates or electoral ofce. Throughoutthese changes, our organization deliberated to defnethe appropriate strategy for our goals, and to identifycreative, inclusive tactics to further our strategy.

Youll see how the tactics and strategies we selectedhelped us build a mass grassroots movement for changeand inuence all levels o the Indian government. Illreer to various government ofcials and processesthrough this notebook. An overview of the key govern-ment structures discussed is available in Appendix A. Ivealso provided, in Appendix B, a list of translations for

Hindi words that appear throughout this notebook.The riins the mvementOur work began in 1987 in the town of Devdungri,Rajasthan. The region was experiencing a severe droughtthat year, and local people were very concerned aboutwork and wage issues. We focused our work on theseissues, providing our movement with an immediacy andrelevance to the local population. Involvement with animmediate issue is important, both from the point ofview of the poor peasant and worker, and also from thatof our Sangathan (Union). The members of the MKSSwere all from the local area including those who workedfull time and those who volunteered their time. Withoutinvolvement in what was perceived to be a local issue,linking it up to a larger macro issue would have beenexceedingly difcult.

I you ask poor people why they do not get what they

should, the most popular reply will be, thatit is because o corruption and nepotism. What is

an irritant or the middle class and a theoretical debateor the auent cuts at the roots o survival or the poor. But

it is a uniying concern. The rural middle class is aected bycorruption much more directly than the urban group, because

the denial o servicesthe badly built road, the dry well, thedispensary without medicine, could be even a matter o lieand death. A bus service or reaching a critically ill person intime to the hospital is dependent on there being a serviceableroad. The problem o corruption re-suraces through the

electoral system, where votes are bought and sold. Howdo we counter this entrenched system? It has been a

continuing challenge, which has pre-occupiedmembers o the MKSS.

MKSS Journal


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1 The measurement book is maintained by an engineerto record the measurement o the work done, thespecifcations, and the materials used, and is signed bythe Junior Engineer and the local administration asproo o work completed.

In our view, a campaign for human rights must alwaysbe frmly rooted in the realities o local people who areaffected by human rights violations. The challenge lies

in the linking of this immediate concern with the rootof the problem. We determined that the underlyingproblems affecting working conditions and wages inRajasthan during this time were corruption and thelack of transparency.

In the late eighties and early nineties in Central Rajasthan,a small organization of peasants and labourers, who hadbeen demanding payment of minimum wages, beganto ask for information. These demands were confusingto most people witnessing the sit-ins (dharnas) MKSSwas staging in various district headquarters. Why didpeople initially battling for full payment of minimumwages now start battling for the right to inspect records?It turned out that each time the labourers protested at

rural employment work sites about the non-paymentof wages, they were told that they did not workhard enough. (In the early nineties the governmentsstatutory minimum wage was Rs.22/- or .50USD.) Whenasked for proof, they were told that themeasurement book1 indicated that theyhad not completed their assigned tasks.It was at this point that MKSS membersworking on the sites decided to ask forthe right to inspect records maintainedby the administration, including copies ofbills, vouchers, labour lists (muster rolls),measurement books, and other records.

Our initial demand was followed by an

ofcial denial rom the administration,which said that, according to the OfcialSecrets Act, 1923, all this information wasa state secret and could therefore, notbe divulged to the public. Effectively,then, the money of the taxpayers and

accounts of its spending was anofcial secret.

Explaining this concept to the ruralpoor took some time. Whenever talkof corruption and misappropriation ofmoney took place, the initial reactionwould be the money belongs to the

state, let it burn. This meant that therural poor did not see money beingspent by the government as theirown taxpayer money. It was thusessential to explain the relationshipbetween the tax payer and state, aswell as the need to know how moneywas being spent.

Attitudes changed, however, whenwe were able to convey theseconcepts, which we did by first

asking the rural poor how they thought the governmentobtained money to spend on welfare and developmentprogrammes. With the recognition that they paid taxes

on every purchaserom a small match box to the frstinjection that a child receives in a hospital upon itsbirththere was a growing sense of awareness amongthe people. We also then asked if people who givemoney to their children to buy groceries, could laterask for an account of what was spent.

People realized that it was their own money beingcirculated back to them in the name of developmentworks. They came to understand that they were payingfor the civil servants salaries, so it followed that theentire government must be accountable to them. Thischange was brought out in one of the slogans coinedby poor peasants, workers, and members of the MKSS:Our money, Our accounts.

It was at this point, in 1994, that a young man fromAmner village, not ar rom the MKSS ofce, came witha complaint of non-payment of the full minimum wage.

MKSS Ofce in Devdungri


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He, however, had additional information. He had seenthe muster roll, with an entry for Rs.22/- per day butall the labourers were being paid only Rs.11/- per day.He had asked the overseer why he was being paid lessthan what was entered, and was told that he could haveRs.22/-, but should not tell the others what he had seenor mention that he had been given more.

A complaint was made to the local administration.While the enquiry took place, MKSS members informallymanaged to see records of buildings listed as completebut ound to be unfnished when we inspected them. Inone instance of misappropriation of funds, 36 lakhs (or3.6 million USD) was paid out to a fraudulent companycalled Bhairon Nath and Sons.

After the enquiry it was clear to MKSS members thataccess to the records was a means to challenge thepower that lay with the powerul, the inuential, andthe administration. It was also a way to effectivelyask for a share of governance. Until that moment,people had been battling a system in which they werediscriminated against on the basis of poverty, caste,

religion, and gender. And yet here was a tool wherebythe poor person found a foothold to push the doorwide open and demand transparency from a systemaccustomed to slamming that door in the faces of poorpeople who asked for their rights.

It was the summer o 1991 in Bhim, the end o April andthe beginning o May. There were 500 o us on dharna, fveo us, one rom each o the fve Districts o Rajsamand, Pali,Bhilwara, Ajmer and Jaipur, on a hunger strike to demandminimum wages on ones work, reusing to accept an admin-istrative over-ride on the law to deny the minimum wage.The hunger strike was on at the time o a parliamentaryelection. The electioneering groups that went to the villagesto canvass were sent back to settle the real dispute beorethey came to ask or votes! The local administration was very

worried and tense about being caught in the dilemma. Thedeployment o police at many places was an administrativenightmare, and they wanted to end the hunger strike.

We had got inormation that the Administration was plan-ning to lit the hunger strikers that evening or night. Weprepared or it and decided we would resist it in a novelmanner. When they picked us up at midnight we beat thedrum and cried on the microphone to wake up the whole

town. Even though the hunger strike was orcibly broken,the demands were met eventually, but we decided that thenext time round we would look or more innovative andcreative modes. MKSS Journal

Versins the trthWe were all ed up with the so called ethicalarguments, waged against us. Ater and duringevery struggle we were put in the dock. And wehad to prove our truth. The oppressor group wasalways right and we were wrong-whether it was

land-related struggles, the ration shops malunc-tioning, the school teacher being absent, essentialdrugs not available at the dispensary, the bribesdemanded by various unctionaries.

Members the MKSS in theMKSS HmeIt was one cool evening when we sat on thechabuthra (platorm) outside our mud hut Mo-hanji, Narayan, Lal Singh, Kheemu, Chunni Bai,

Anshi, Shankar, Kalu, Chunni Singh, Hanswarup,Susheela, Nikhil and I, amongst others and dis-cussed the utility o expecting any semblance o ethical actionby a corrupt and alienated administration. It is an evening I

will never orget. They articulated the growing recognition overyears o struggle and what became the Right To Inormation(RTI) campaigns basic assumption. With amazing clarity andsimplicity they said, So long as these records do not comeout, we will always be liars. They have to come out, i we are tosurvive. Contrary to much that is believed, the poor peasantsand workers gave birth not only to the struggle, but the ideologyand the orm it took. We believe that poor people think, andthink as well as the literate do. In act their ideas are rooted in

a common sense rom which literacy alienates the schooled,because the theory subsumes the reality very oten. It is a beliein this wisdom o common sense that has strengthened anddefned the campaign.

The methods that were chosen in our basic political struggle orthis right, thereore, were born in this context. Every orum andorm was discussed and had to all within the ethical rameworko transparency and accountability that the RTI struggle wasbeginning to defne. Inspired by Gandhijis political wisdom,

we were aware at all times that means must match the ends.(MKSS Journal)


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their complacency required a new method of placing ourdemands. Because repeated complaints and protests hadyielded little action, it was felt that the best approachwould be to go to the people and ask for justice. Andthus the tactic of a jan sunwai (public hearing) wasborn.

Used as a tactical forum, the jan sunwaiis somewhat

like a court, but does not pronounce judgment. In thesepublic hearings, local people can come forward to speakthe truth about what they have seen and experienced.This creates more accountability in the process, becausethose participating are from the same village, makingit less likely that they will counter a false statement.Everyone who wants to speak can make a request andbe heard.

The collective did lay out some initial ground rules.No one in an inebriated state, using un-parliamentarylanguage, or speaking on behalf of a political partyor caste group, is allowed to speak. With these normsestablished and accepted at the beginning, the hearingwas seen as a exible orum, with a strong ethical

conditionality to the testimonies.

In these public hearings, the facts, including details ofrecords, are pro-actively sharedwith the village communitya n d t h o r - o u g h l yverifed. This is doneby investigatingt h e w o r k ,speaking tothe labourersw h o h a dworked onthe site, and

encouragingthem to givetest imoniesabout actualex pend i tures .( S e e t h e b o xTactical Steps: Jan

sunwai.)

We might, for instance, ask t h efollowing questions about a particular constructionproject:

How many bags o cement and how many tractor loadsof stone were used?

Where did the stone come rom? Some areas inRajasthan are hilly with huge rock formations. It isoften unnecessary to get stone from very far-off places,and yet in many instances we found fraudulent billsclaiming that the stone had to be brought from greatdistances. These had been booked as expendituresincurred.

A l l s t r a t e g i e sand tact ics a re re la ted

symbiotically to a larger political andideological vision. The need or collective

understanding as the basis o a campaignor a movement drew the MKSS to orms o

engagement that were collective, transparent

and in the public domain. The need to weaveimmediate and visible needs into a collectiveunderstanding o how democratically mandatedgovernments unction became important. Each

o the orms chosen, thereore, educatedpeople as much as it mobilized

support or public action. MKSS Journal

This discovery led us to question the tactics we had beenusing to advocate for improved working conditions andwages. Growing concern about the ineffectiveness oftrying to work with an insensitive government began adebate on the tactics needed to make the governmentacteven react. Since people continuously needed toreturn to the same government for redress, with their

demands usually receiving a blind eye and deaf ear, weclearly needed to fnd new tactics.

One of the lessons of MKSSs earlier struggle forminimum wages and of related sit-ins was that hungerstrikes were no longer a very effective tactic. During ourtwo hunger strikes, in 1990 and in 1991, we found thegovernment indifferent to the fate of those involved.In fact, the local Member of the Legislative Assembly,the elected representative to the State Government,said, Let them die. There will be seventeen less in anoverpopulated country! The pressure ater the frstfew days began to show in the deteriorating health ofthose on strike. The collective itsel ound it difcultto watch fellow members wasting away, and lost its

appetite for the struggle. We recognized a dilemma:i the hunger strike continued indefnitely, the MKSSwould have had to appeal to the same administrativemachinery we were protesting against if we wanted tosave the lives of the strikers.

Strateic al and principlesGiven our values as an organization, we neededto identify a strategy and tactics that would beparticipatory, transparent, and humble.

Throughout the search, we were determined to fnda method in which people could be involved frombeginning to end. We also focused on the use of thepublic domain and public space.

We turned our attention to involving citizens in astruggle to demand the right to information, whichwould provide the basis for citizen activism andparticipation in a movement for economic and socialrights. Youll see that the tactics we identifed servedour strategic goal of building an effective, participatorydemocracy in India. In the pages that follow, I outline anumber of the tactics we used to build public supportfor and participation in the struggle for the right toinformation:

Jan Sunwai(public hearing)

Dharnas (sit-ins)

Ghotala Rath Yatra (Chariot of Scams)

Street theatre Songs and slogans

Truckyatra (truck journey)

We used these tactics alone and in conjunction with oneanother. In all cases, we tried to make the tactics fun,informative, and symbolic.

Jan Sunwai, oR PuBLIC HEARINgFor a long time, members of the MKSS had felt that

jolting the government and the administration out of


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Where did the sand come rom?It was the same case with sand.Rajasthan is a desert and sandis plentifully available for use atworksites without having to buy it.The bills for cement used and othersuch materials were oten inated,

as well.As we began to use this tactic, wehad much to learn. The measurementbooks were written in a complexmathematical manner that needed tobe demystifed. They almost alwaysseemed to reflect more than wasactually built in an area. As we visitedmore development projects listed inthe measurement books, we saw thatrooms from school buildings and policestations were found to be missing. Thepresence and help of a junior engineer,Gireesh Bhugra, who came to help and

educate us, was invaluable.In any public works project, two kinds of records are veryimportant: the bills and vouchers for materials and themuster roll2 for labour costs. The muster rolls are a bigsource of illegal graft, for it is possible to put down manynames and claim huge amounts. As it has been foundtime and again, anywhere you look there are fraudulentnames. In Kot Kirana (1994), for instance, names of deadpeople were on the muster roll. Names are very oftencopied from electoral lists, so they can include people

on migration, or members of the middle class who rarelygo for wage labour. (Casual manual labour is mostlyrestricted to earthworks, jobs only the rural poor dobecause they often have no work choices.)

When a complaint came, then, for non-payment ofminimum wages from the Panchayat of Kot Kirana,District Pali, the MKSS decided to access the informationinormally rom the Block Development Ofcers (BDO)ofce and place it beore the people.

When I went to the BDOs ofce in Raipur, therewas general consternation and worry. They could notunderstand how I had been given permission to enter,let alone see the secret records (muster rolls and billsand vouchers). They continued to look in at me through

the open window while I laboriously copied the bills,vouchers and muster rolls of several works, as if theycould not believe their eyes. I thanked my stars that myfather was a Patwari3, and I had some familiarity withthese documents. But I was immensely excited, becauseI could discern a lot of inaccuracies and discrepancies.

When I took these documents with other MKSScolleagues to the persons on the list, all hell broke loose.The people were enraged, and the local mafa got readyto suppress the information and at all costs to preventthe jan sunwai (JS), scheduled to be held on the 2nd ofDecember 1994. The Administration, the local netas4, the

police, the liquor mafa combined together to try andprevent the jan sunwai. There was equal and matching

anger and reaction from the local people who had beencheated, many of whom were powerful local citizens.

Tactical steps:J s(pblichearin)

1. Accessing records o a public work

2. Demystiying the inormation by collating it in a mannerthat helps people understand it.

(For example: i a labourer has worked or 50 days ata work site over a period o 9 weeks, there would be 9labour listsone or each weekon which his/her name

would be entered. The method o collation ensures thatlabourers names, their number o days worked, and theamount o money paid to them are all entered on onesheet to acilitate the verifcation process in the village.)

3. These records are then taken into the village where thework took place, and a door-to-door verifcation with thelabourers who worked at the worksite is carried out to seei the sheet matches what they have to say.

4. Worksites are visited and inormation cross-verifed withthe Measurement Book entries.

5. A public meeting, called a jan sunwai or public hearing,is organized where people come and testiy. Ofcials areinvited to this meeting to hear the testimonies.

A rural public hearing on ood security

2 Muster rolls are labour lists that are very important or identiying work-ers, the quantum o work, attendance, the rate o work, wages assessed,and claims rom the government or fnancial sanctions or recovery.

3 Lowest revenue ofcial at the village level, who collects dues rompeople and is also the keeper o many government records. The Patwariis almost always the most inuential and thereore the most eared ogovernment ofcials.

4 Elected representative


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withouta l e g a lentitlementa n d t h eevolution of tactics

and strategies to getit framed, the issue wouldremain localized.

As soon as the administration realized the impactthis tactic would have on their functioning, there wasresentment and reaction. The frst organised protestoccurred in January 1995, when the Gram Sewaks6decided that they would give information abouttheir records only to their seniors in government orauditors.

We always sought as much information as possiblebefore organizing a public hearing, but the tactic alsoworked with only partial information. The 1995 jan

sunwai in Jawaja was held on the basis of peoples

information without comparative government records,but was still as powerful in mobilizing and sustainingpublic opinion as the earlier threejan sunwais. In fact,one of the important results of this public hearing wasthe series of demands for information from Bagmal,Asan Panchayat, taking the RTI campaign further andadding more members. In this case, many people whohad been refused second installments for housing grantswere immediately given the money. There were manysuch incidents in all the public hearings.

As a result of the hearing and the impact that the sit-ins were making, the Chief Minister who was touringand canvassing for votes in the forthcoming Panchayatelections made election promises in Jawaja. He promised

to make bills, vouchers, and muster rolls transparent bygiving authenticated photocopies. He made a similarstatement in the State Legislative Assembly, which wasduly reported in the press by the Dainik Navjyoti, a Hindi

(Shankar from the MKSS Journal)

The demands placed before the Government weresimple but fundamental. They were:

transparency o all panchayat records

accountability o ofcials and elected representativesat the panchayat level

a peoples audit or social audit5 (A peoples audit isa verifcation process or audit carried out by civilsociety groups or those other than an implementingagency or a work. The fndings are put orth in thepublic domain. A social audit is a similar processof verification, but is in collaboration with thegovernment, where the infrastructure is provided bythe government, but the actual process o verifcationis done by other groups of people.)

redress: embezzled development unds beingrecovered and paid back to the village

The frst phase o jan sunwais was held before therewere legal entitlements to access information, and

followed a pattern similar to that of Kot Kirana. Thesewere the Public Hearings in Kotkirana (December 2,1994), Bhim (December 7, 1994), Vijaypura (December17, 1994), Jawaja (January 7, 1995), and Thana (April25, 1995). All of them were full of drama and the publicresponse was overwhelming.

The villagers came not just from the local area but fromar-ung villages to see what was happening. Peoplecame and testifed. They were ew initially, but theytestifed in ront o an independent panel and theresponse was tremendous. Members of the MKSS hadorganized big public meetings in the past, but thesehearings satisfed their expectations o an alternative orallowing free and responsible expression and created a

general feeling of empowerment. It became a popularapproach and, most importantly, the villagers supportedthe public hearings. With the fndings rom these ourpublic hearings between December 1994, and the end ofApril 1995, it was clear that the need to access such recordswas absolutely necessary.Italso became apparent that,

Records being used during a rural public hearing

When we all went to

Kotkirana, we intended to

sleep in the school building as we always

did. But the local people, particularly the youth,

took us home and said, we have heard that the local

mafa is distributing liquor to have you all beaten up!

They were telling people that the jan sunwai was cancelled.

But people came and more than a 1,000 people attended thejan sunwai. There was a microphone and an old parachute

under which we sat. There were so many testimonies,

despite the non co-operation o the local administration.

The Panel or Jury o eminent persons rom outside

and ONE newspaper reporter, whom we had

persuaded to come, helped make the event

public. The rest is now history!!

MKSS Journal

5 Most o the disclosures on dealcations and grat were ater the fnancialaudit. The social audit or peoples audit complements and supports a f-nancial audit. In Rajasthan, the government has passed a statute requiringa social audit to conducted in ward sabhas (meetings) in the Panchayats.

6 Gram Sewak, secretary to the Sarpanch, the elected representative whoheads the Panchayat, or village council


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Daily published from Ajmer.

The jan sunwaiin Thana was also held with partialinformation. But the fact that Ladu Singh, a memberof the MKSS, was Sarpanch obligated him to makeinformation available. Thejan sunwaiattracted otherSarpanches from elsewhere in Rajasthan and thecampaign increased its spread.

The new tactic of jan sunwaiyielded some dramaticresults, including:

Sarpanch Basanta Devi of Kukarkheda Panchayat inRajsamand district returned Rs.50,000 (1,250 USD)against a fraud of Rs. one Lakh (2,500 USD) that thepeople confrmed when development works o the lastthree years were evaluated by them in thejan sunwai.The other fty thousand rupees she planned to returnin two installments in the next two months.

Sarpanch Chhaggan Singh from Rawatmal agreed toreturn the embezzled money against a fraud of Rs.1.50 lakhs in his panchayat in Ajmer district.

Sarpanch of Surajpura in Ajmer district agreed toreturn the money against a fraud of Rs. 5 lakh.

In Umarwas Panchayatof Rajsamand district, a largeembezzled amount was recovered from Ward PanchNain Singh and Panchayat Samiti member KamalaDevi, proxy leaders of the village who used the dalitsarpanch as a rubber stamp for their malfeasance; the

fraud was unearthed in ajan sunwai. (Source: NeelabhMisra-RTI Discourse in India)

In Janawad Panchayat, after a public hearing held in2001 (following passage of the RTI Act in the state ofRajasthan), it was found that millions (1 crore 23 lakhs,with a crore equal to 10,000,000) were embezzledover 6 years. While the members of the MKSS andresidents of Janavadpanchayatwere trying to accessrecords, construction activity was taking place.Buildings that should have been built six years earlier

(according to the records) were being built then tocover the trailsso much so that a veterinary clinicwas built on the top oor o an existing building. Itwas only when members of the MKSS pointed outthe ridiculousness in expecting a buffalo to climba narrow staircase to be treated that the board ofthe veterinary clinic was shited to the ground oor.

The outcome of the Public Hearing was a state-levelenquiry which charge sheeted 21 people. (Chargesheeting means that criminal charges were pressedagainst them and police cases (FIR) booked.) For thefrst time people working in the administration weresuspended through departmental enquiries. Theseincluded Block Development Ofcers and Executiveand Junior Engineers. Recoveries were ordered fromthem. There are multiple cases of fraud still pendingagainst them, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau hasregistered several charges in separate cases.

In thejan sunwaiheld subsequent to the changes inthe Panchayati Raj Act after the 1997 dharna (sit-in),the administration was present. The authenticated

information was made available, albeit with duress,and there was a reluctant acceptance by the authoritiesthat transparency had in fact come to stay.

The Public Hearing has become a common method ofaddressing larger issues of hunger, displacement, andother rights across the country. The dialectic is never aclean and tidy process, especially since those engaging init are from completely different paradigms, with truthsthat cannot always be proven. Yet there is a need to gobeyond clearing the confusion, beyond information,towards participatory democracy.

DharnasDespite our successes using the tactic of public hearings,we determined that we would need to combine this

approach with other tactics in order to have a largerimpact on the issues of transparency and participatorydemocracy.

After a year of waiting for the Chief Minister inRajasthan to follow through on his commitments toincrease transparency, the MKSS gave notice of a dharna(sit-in).

MKSS activists took the newspaper cutting outlining hispromises and went from one administrative ofce to thenext trying to fnd out i any order had been passed.When they fnally approached the Chie Secretary othe State, he said that while the Chief Minister madea lot of assurances, but that did not mean that he hadto follow up on them. The Chief Secretary probably didnot realize how his statement actually gave the MKSSammunition to fght or the right to inormation withrenewed vigour.

It is important to note the change in our tactic ofusing the dharna. As I mentioned in the beginning,the pressure on a group which is fghting a collectivebattle is immense when some of the dharna participantsare on a hunger strike. Hunger strikes make a protesta time-bound activity because the body can take the

Person testiying at a Rural Public Hearing.


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14

lemonadew a s

s u b s i d i z e d ,and the support wasimmense. In addition, there was a long and veryimportant list of well-wishers. MKSS collected 84,000rupees in cash, and had a transparency board displayingincome and expenditures. Everyone was invited to askfor details, if they so wished.

The issue caught the imagination of those who heardabout it and came to the sit-in. Eminent people,including activists like Medha Patkar, and journalists likeNikhil Chakravarthy, Kuldip Nayyar, Ajit Bhattacharjea,Prabhash Joshi, and Bharat Dogra. (All these people arevery erudite and eminent people, leading journalistsin India, who have stood by and supported the RTI

Campaign right from the time it was just a smallmovement in rural Rajasthan, to what it is today.)Retired judges, trade unions, and peoples organisationsalso came. In all, 400 organisations signed up in support.The local newspapers played an important role inreporting on the event, with the reportersand stringersof bigger dailies not missing the dharna for even a day.Kavita Srivastav, general secretary of the Peoples Unionfor Civil Liberties (PUCL)9 and well-known human rightsdefender in Rajasthan and friend of the MKSS, helpedwith the advocacy of the campaign.

There were varied cultural events with singing, music,plays, and slogans. Songs of protest began to be writtenabout the false promise made by the high priest (theChief Minister) to the people of the State, in the templeof democracy (the Legislative Assembly). Other songsincluded Main nahi manga (I Dont ask for,followed by a list of things like gold, bungalows, fancycars, rich food, Pepsi / Coca-Cola, bottled mineral water,and ending with I want photocopies of the accountsof the government), and Choriwado ghano hogayore, koi tho munde bolo (Thefts from the Exchequerhave increased manifold, someone speak up; this song

again listed out all that had been stolencement, sand,stone, poor peoples money). The songs were interactive,and people joined in with the singing.

One of MKSSs greatest lessons from the BeawarDharnawas that the creation of a sustained, open, public forumelicits response, involvement, and participation. Timeand time again, ordinary citizens who came to the

dharna said, Why dont you stay on in Beawar, andsustain this platform? This forum has given us dignityand a voice. Initially we were looked down upon as a

set o ragamufn street fghters, and the elite turnedits nose up. But later, as important public fgures cameto support the struggle, the issue got its context clearlydefned; the orum expanded and got the enthusiastic

support of many kinds of groups and individuals. Itbecame the centre of all discourse in Beawar for those40 days!(MKSS Journal)

We lifted the dharna when the Chief Minister promisedthat the assurance made to open the records would behonoured and set up a committee to look into it.

The forum and the space were used to create a debateand discussions on issues of corruption, the duty of thestate, and the role of the citizen. Ordinary citizens gota public platform. Corruption and broken promiseswere causing caused anger and unhappiness not merelyamong the seemingly helpless poor but among peoplefrom all sections of society. The obvious loss of ethics inpublic life made the right to information a universallyimportant issue.

JAIPuR DHARNA: MAy 1997The committee set up by the Chief Minister produced areport. But this report on transparency became a secretdocument! After a year of persistence and waiting, withthe documents remaining opaque, the MKSS organized

a series of dharnas in the six divisions of Rajasthan,ending with Jaipur, the capital city, in which we stageda 53-day dharna. This time the dharna was organized atthe state capital just outside the Secretariat. The datewas set for May 1997, the year of the Golden Jubilee ofIndias independence.

The spot chosen was the Statue Circle, which again wasnot very far from the secretariat and the governmentofces. This circle is a popular spot in which peoplefrom all strata come and enjoy an outing. There are lushlawns, which are kept green and wet even at the heightof summer when people in the city suffer from acutewater shortages and people around the desert state arepraying for water. (This in a state where women in therural areas have to walk miles for a couple of pots ofdrinking water, and where drought is a perennial andaccepted situation. Over the years, people have fought,demanding access to water because rural sources, such aswells, have dried up and there are no other sources. Thegovernment promises hand pumps and water pipelines,with millions of rupees sanctioned for the same, butthis is also a State where money has been siphoned off,giving people only false hopes of water.)

People from the richer classes came to the statue circle9 PUCL is Indias largest human rights organization

Songsand theatre are used

in protests all over the world tocommunicate. In a largely illiterate social

milieu, however, songs and theatre bond ustogether. But more than that they also give and share

inormation and educate, make the logical links soeectively and pithily. It would take hours o discussion to

have the same eect. More important, they draw on the localstrength o people, who can compose lyrics with the greatest oease, and set them to song. This is involvement, participation,and commitment. It is o course solidarity. The song gets sung,learned, and sung many times over. All these songs are nowsung all over Rajasthan. Some in many parts o India.

MKSS Journal

NOTE: See other New Tactics TacticalNotebooks on using theater for

education and action.


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for their morning walks and evening jogs. Many ofthem were amongst those sitting in the ofces hearingthe songs of protest, slogans, and speeches over themicrophone and faced with the daunting prospect

of seeing the protestors in the evening at the StatueCircle.

While the protests went on outside, much tension wasbuilding up within the government circles. They couldnot justify their stand of secrecy on the basis of anAct as outdated as the Ofcial Secrets Act, 1923, acolonial legacyone of the many left behind by theBritish. Independent India had not rescinded the Act, butcontinued to use it to suppress and deny information, insome cases even going to absurd limits such as denyingpublished information on the grounds of security.

The MKSS simultaneously used methods of advocacy todialogue and debate at various levels in the Government.

Termed limited engagement by Aruna Roy, memberof the MKSS, it is a process whereby one engages withthe government in areas where dialogue is possible anda possibility of change is seen. However, at the end ofthat engagement both sides know that they have theirown larger role to play in ensuring its enforcement.

gHoTALA RATH yATRA, oR THE CHARIoT of

SCAMSThe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the ruling partyin Rajasthan at this time and was refusing to passany legislation that would allow citizens access toinformation. It was ironic that, at the central level, thesame party was preparing a grand rath yatra(chariot

campaign) to be undertaken by their national leader,Shri. L.K Advani. The campaign was to highlight theprevalence of bhay, bhook, aur bhrastachar (fear,hunger, and corruption), and suggest modes to lessenif not eradicate them.

The rath yatra was due to pass through the State ofRajasthan. It was at this juncture that the activists ofthe MKSS decided to stage their own Svarna Jayantike Uplakshme Ghotala Rath Yatra, the difference inapproach being that while the other chariot campaignwas to protest fear, hunger, and corruption, the chariotcampaign of the MKSS would be a political lampoon onhollow promises and campaigns. It also highlighted thescams that had taken place since India had gained its

independence. This gave birth to the political satire ofthe Ghotala rath yatra10or Chariot of Scams whichbecame an immensely popular way to involve peoplefurther in the campaign.

The MKSSs Chariot of Scams was also different inits appearance. The chariot of the BJP was a fancy, air-conditioned caravan, which had all the amenities thepolitical leaders required. The MKSSs chariot was apushcart, normally used by street vendors (somethingthe common person could identify with, inexpensive andeasily available), which was adorned with an old curtainand some other materialsdonated by friends.A chair was placed

on the pushcart,and there weretwo dummyhorses i nthe front.T h e r ewas alsoa n o l dumbrellaw i t h aseries ofb o a r d sh a n g i n gf r o m i t ,one for each

scam that hadtaken p l acein the 50 yearssince independence.Shankar, an MKSS activistand gifted communicator,dressed up as a politician named Shri. Rajvani (thevoice of the state), which also rhymes with Advani (BJPnational leader), and sat on the pushcarts chair.

A sit-in and protest march in Jaipur

10 In translation: svarna jayanti (Golden jubilee) ke uplakshme (on theoccasion o) ghotala (scams) rath (chariot) yatra (journey), or Chariot oScams Journey on the Occasion o the Golden Jubilee.

The birth o this idea

was two-old. The most important

was the lampooning o gimmicky

promises by political parties. The other was also

identiying a mode that would take the message o

the dharna to all o Jaipur. Unlike Beawar, Jaipur is

a huge city; the dharna was near its ofcial hub, but

what about the common person. So the idea was that

this chariot would go to dierent localities every day.

By the end o the 53-day dharna, it had visited 63

enclaves and residential colonies, o the poor,

the rich, the middle class, the bustlingold city, and the market places

MKSS Journal


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16

Announcements were made for days at the sit-in that

Shri. Rajvani, popular leader of the masses, was comingto Jaipur from Delhi (the national capital) with his RathYatra, and was going to address the gathering. TheCentral Intelligence Department (CID)11, members ofwhom were supposed to be keeping tabs on what washappening at the sit-in and give the administrationdaily updates, began to mention this in their reports.People began to ask questions Who was coming, fromwhere, and why? The MKSS capitalized on this andmade frequent mention of this impending visit. Specialannouncements were made that since Shri. Rajvani wasto be a State Guest; he would be staying at the VIPguesthouse. No one seemed able to fgure out who thisperson was, and the curiosity grew.

Finally, on the mentioned date, the MKSS announcedthat its guest had arrived and that the procession of thechariot was about to begin. The entire team of the MKSSand other people at the sit-in began to line up behindthe chariot. The State and the police had prepared wellfor the visitor! Suddenly, from behind the tent, Shankaremerged in the popular attire of the politician Rajvani,got on to the chariot, and the procession began. Thepolice who had been ordered to ensure adequatearrangements also swung into action.

There were policemen on motorbikes on either side ofthe chariot, absolutely unaware of the sarcasm or thefact that the joke was on them. The chariot of scamshad a song, based on the tune of a popular Hindu

bhajan or hymn. Most of the people on the streetsdid not know what to make of the procession. Some

joined, thinking it was a religious procession, until theyheard the words and looked closely at the procession.Some thought it was a political rally by some poorcandidate. Most misconceptions were dispelled withina few minutes when the procession stopped and Rajvaniaddressed the crowds. His speech, full of political satireand extraordinary wit, and based on the real conditionof India, was a sellout. People listened spellbound andapplauded, in most cases joining the procession, and

often following it with a visit to the dharna. The Ghotalarath also collected money in donation. The governmentfound itself helpless to stop the spoof; it was not aroadblock, or a violent political protest breaking rules.What, after all, could they do?

The media loved the act, the common person wasenthralled by it, and the administration was left

seething, with no clue as to how to counter it, nor howto stop the immense impact!

The calling of a bluff on political gimmicks like raths,yatras, and false promises, establishes immediatecommunication, and people respond with completeunderstanding. The common person has been taken fora ride and deprived of so many essential services andnecessities because of corruption, nepotism, and misuseof democratic institutions, that the Rath appeals at abasic level and draws an immediate response.

The identifcation o this method o communicationand mobilization has been invaluable in the Right toInformation campaign. As a tactic supporting our overall

strategy, it has been a brilliant combination of manygenres. The ghotala raths ability to land anywhere andbegin communication has given it a special place in thetactics used by the RTI campaign.

With the growing popularity in the media of the Rightto Information campaign, including newspaper reportsboth in the regional and national press, TV coverage,and pressure from civil society and the political circles,the State Government found itself incapable of handlingthe issue.

As the MKSS moved into the 56th day of its protest inthe city of Jaipur, the government conceded and passedan order amending the Panchayati RajRules.12 Thisamendment ensured that people could inspect records

Shri. Rajvani addressing a street corner meeting

11 Central Intelligence Department, or Internal intelligence, is a perma-nent guest at all activist unctions, reporting on the activities.

12 In the three-tier system o governance that now exists in most stateso India, based on the 72nd Amendment, Panchayati Raj is the frst tier,promoting sel-governance in the rural areas.

Shankar as Shri. Rajvani (the voice o the state) riding the Chariot oScams


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from the Panchayats and obtain photocopies withinfour days at Rs.2/- per photocopied page. The order wasbackdated, and the government tried to score points bystating that it had been passed before the MKSS dharna,claiming that the sit-in was an attempt to discredit thegovernment.

STREET THEATREIn addition to the Ghotala Rath Yatra, the MKSS usedthe effective communication tactic of street theatre tointroduce the Right to Information campaign in a newarea and enter into a debate with ordinary people. Astreet play entitled Khazana was particularly popular.

The Ghotala Rath Yatra was a very popular and powerfullampoon, a satire on political gimmickry, used by theMKSS to enter a dialogue with the common personon the street. It exposed the hypocrisies and lies ofthe ruling elite and highlighted the problems thatthe poor were facing due to a corrupt system andits inherent nepotism. But what about taking theissue further to state the importance of transparencyand the right to know as a remedy for this malaise?

How was the issue of the Right to Information to beintroduced to the onlookers present at the streetmeeting? While distributing parchas (pamphlets) onthe issue was one popular method (used by the MKSSduring every organized event), we felt that there hadto be something more that could establish immediaterapport and begin a dialogue with people who gatheredto see the show.

After much discussion we decided to create a streetplay through which the issue of the RTI as a tool tofght corruption and arbitrary misuse o power could beintroduced in the public domain.13 The play Khazana(Treasury)was born out of discussions and suggestionsthat the group had with playwright Tripurari Sharma.14

The play had few props and could be performedanywhere. It involved a group o people fnding atreasure and then, to safeguard it, appointing threepeople, theZimmedaar(Person Responsible Politician),theJaankaar(the Knowledgeable Person Bureaucrat)and the Chowkidaar (the Guard Police). The threeform a nexus and begin to steal from the exchequer.When the people who put them in those positions ofpower ask for the treasure to use it for their immediatenecessities, they are told that no such treasure exists.This leads to protests against the three trustees, with thepeople demanding answers about the treasure. Thereare urther protests, and the fnal scene o the playshows a tug-of-war taking place between the people in

power and the common people. Demands are shoutedout, and for each there is a negative response.

At this point, the Sutradhar (Anchor) enters and asksthe crowds watching the play, So whose side are youwilling to take? The response has always been, Weare on the side of the people. Khazana has been takenalong with the Ghotala Rath to all the big events heldin India, such as the Asia Social Forum in Hyderabad(2003) and the World Social Forum in Mumbai (2004). Ithas also been to many small towns in Rajasthan, and itspopularity has been widespread. Reactions to the play

have been varied, fromanger against thesystem to immediateinvolvement.

SoNgS AND

SLogANSAs mentioned earlier,songs have been avery popular modeof communication.Our organization hasendeavored to keepthe lyrics simple and thetunes as familiar as possible,to encourage more people to singalong and participate. The songs are sung at manyplaces in Rajasthan, and have become so popular thatcassettes have been recorded for sale. Some of the mostpowerful songs have been written by women who havevoiced their anger, frustration, and disillusionment withthe government. Be it Darpo mati, main tho mara haq

manga (Dont be afraid, I am only asking for my rightand not your power), or Khagyo re parshasan remaintho chaude dhade boloon (the administration hasswallowedfollowed by the bags of cement, tractorloads of cement, I will say it aloud in the public arena),the songs have been catchy, racy, and fun. They havebeen sung with a great deal of gusto, and even on a daywhen one is feeling overwhelmed by what lies ahead inthe days of struggle, they have kept people going.

The MKSS has also made very effective use of slogans inall of its campaigns and events. Slogans are the languageof the people, and come from the understanding andthoughts of the people themselves. They are succinctexpressions that represent not only ideology but also

the campaigns direction, and are used to harnessthe collective voice of the people attending a publicmeeting, to help them identify with each other and theissue. Slogans are also easy to remember, and effectivecommunication tools. They can spread across thecountry and be used all overon banners and posters,

13 Within the MKSS, and almost rom its inception, no issue is takenup without an internal debate by the MKSS members on the CentralCommittee. This Committee is comprised o all ull-time workers as wellas supporters and MKSS members who have long been associated withthe organization and its struggle, and who belong to the villages o thesurrounding region where the Sangathan works. There are approximately30 members o the Central Committee. No decision is taken without itbeing discussed thoroughly by the members. The Committee meets oncea month, and sometimes these meetings have lasted or more than a dayto allow issues o concern to be discussed. No decision is taken in a hurry.This democratic process is one o the strengths o the MKSS, becauseeveryone gets to voice their opinion and the responsibility o the decisionlies on the shoulders o the collective as opposed to any one individual.This process o collective decision-making has also brought about most othe historic changes in the legislation o the country.

14 A playwright and theatre person, she teaches in the National Schoolor Drama (Delhi). She is a specialist in Street Theatre and has been astaunch supporter o the RTI movement. She has also been a guru tocommunicators in the development feld, and has trained many o theMKSS members in their communication skills.

Sushi la has only

passed class our, but that does

not have anything to do with her

intelligence. When she represented the MKSS

in a meeting in Delhi she was asked, Why d

you want the right to see government records

Her sharp, succinct reply was,when I send my s

with 10 rupees to the market, I ask or accoun

Government spends crores o rupees in my nam

dont I have the right to see those records? It is

our money, it is thereore our accounts,

hamara paisa, hamara hisab.

MKSS Journal


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18

in marches. A silent march might attract onlookers,but would provide no information. Through slogans,the message is conveyed and the voices of many areunited.

Initially, it is not easy to shout slogans because one isembarrassed and wonders what others might think,but eventually people get over any such inhibitions. In

addition, slogans can be a good way to get the attentionof a huge group of people at meetings. The eight wordsof The Right to Know, the Right to Live, for example,summarize what might otherwise take half an hour toexplain. The slogan captures the spirit of the people.

Slogans coined by members of the MKSS include:

Hum Janenge, Hum Jiyenge: The Right to Know, theRight to Live

Hamara Paisa, Hamara Hisab: Our Money, Our Ac-counts

Yeh paise hamare aapki, nahin kisi ke baap ki: Thismoney belongs to you and me; it is no mans personalproperty (Note: In this slogan the word in quotes canbe replaced with anything ranging from money, thegovernment, land, food, water, grains, etc.)

Is desh ki janta maang rahi hai paise paise ka hisaab:The people of this country demand an account ofevery penny spent

Truck YaTra, oR TRuCK JouRNEyThe Truck Yatra, was also an ironic comment on themany grand politicalyatras (journeys), organized justbefore elections, or to incite communal passion. Political

yatras are deeply embedded in the Indian culture.Walking for a purpose is an act given great sanctity andis also seen as a sign of commitment. As with Gandhissalt march, for example, it has been seen as a means

of reaching out to people. Theyatras MKSS organizesare not intended to be a one-way process. Rather, onelearns from people and takes suggestions along theway, especially when one is in the search of answers toquestions that might not have ready-made solutions.We have found yatras to be an effective method ofdiscovering new approaches or rediscovering those thathave been used in the past but forgotten. Yatras are alsoa great way to mobilize people to join the movement.

While the most effective mode has been thepadyatra(foot march) from village to village, we have used a truck

yatra to cover greater distance in a shorter time frame.Like Gandhijis trainyatra, through which he discoveredIndia, a truckyatra is used to reach out farther. Trucks

remain the cheapest mode of transport for the poor inrural India, and we in the MKSS always hitch rides intrucks because it is so much cheaper. Our yatras are incontrast to those commonly employed by politicians,with the air-conditioned vehicles they use for canvassingduring elections. The MKSS used the truck yatra tocanvass for the RTI Act and to create a space for largerpublic opinion and debate on the issue of transparency,accountability and ethics in governance.

The MKSS used an ordinary truck. Forty campaignerspiled in and went from place to place to talk about

the RTI. Many such yatras have been organized; one

of them took the draft bill to the different DivisionalHeadquarters of the State. Dharnas lasting for oneto three days were staged in each of these places.The ghotala rath was carried along and used to drawattention to the issue. Khazana was staged at streetcorners and meetings held. Because in-depth discussionsregarding the draft bill could not be held at these streetcorner meetings, we also held meetings with interestedgroups and public meetings with special groups (http://www.righttofoodindia.org/data/truckyatra.pdf).

An intermediate sccessThe combination of all of these tactics ultimately ledto success in the state of Rajasthan. In 1998, duringthe State elections, the Opposition Party in Rajasthan

promised in its election manifesto to enact a law onright to information if it came to power. The electedgovernment came to power in 1999, and was metwith a demand to ulfll its electoral promise o anRTI law. Following the election, the Party appointed acommittee of bureaucrats, headed by Mr. P.N. Bhandari,a Secretary of the Rajasthan Government, to draft a billon the right to information. When the GovernmentCommittee of Secretaries sat down to make the law,they recommended that administrative orders wouldsufce and that a law was not necessary. There was loudprotest both at the back tracking about the law and atthe committees lack of transparency. The governmentreluctantly opened up the proceedings and includedpublic consultation to discuss the draft. It invited groups

to interact. When the MKSS team went in, they werereceived as all bedraggled activists are, with contempt.But two hours later, after documents were laid out anddiscussed, and after the secretaries discussed thingsamongst themselves, they said, surprisingly enough:You have more experience than we do. Why dont youprepare the frst drat.

MKSS and the National Campaign for Peoples Right toInformation (NCPRI) conducted a host of consultationsin each divisional headquarters of the State. Drawing

The truck that was our home or a ortnight while we traveled rom townto town.


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on the input from these consultations, a draft civilsociety Right to Information Bill was prepared, whichwas then submitted to the Committee. The Committeedrew on the citizens draft Bill for its recommendations,but refused to accept the Bill in total.

The Rajasthan Right to Information Act 200015 waseventually passed on 11 May 2000, but only cameinto force on 26 January 2001after the rules were

ramed. The Act in its fnal orm retained many o thesuggestions of the RTI movement, but diluted others.Activists in the state have stated that it is stronger thatsome state Acts, like Tamil Nadu, but lags behind thoseof Goa, Karnataka, and Delhi.

An evlvin strate: advcac andthe laOver the years, the MKSS has initiated many creativetactics to engage citizens in a movement for the Rightto Information. Our strategy to engage and mobilize

at the grassroots level provided us with legitimacyand strength to carry the movement forward. As thatmovement grew, and when we had seen success at thestate level, it became clear to us that we needed toincorporate an additional strategyto advocate forlegislation at the national level.

This was a crucial process16, because the law was then

owned by people. This involvement with lawmakingfundamentally sustained peoples participation in themany battles with government to prevent the dilutionof the law. (MKSS Journal)

NATIoNAL CAMPAIgN foR PEoPLES RIgHT ToINfoRMATIoNThe grassroots political struggle defned and spearheadedthe RTI campaign. We needed to make the leap froma specifc local struggle to a law, an entitlement. InRajasthan the MKSS had worked to have the PanchayatAct amended. What about the rest of India? To makethe transition rom the specifc to the universal requiredthat the idiom, mode, and involvement of the campaignbecome wider. The need for lawyers, draftspersons,legal assistance, media, and other groups becameimportant.

Most important of all, the campaign also realizedthat there was a need for an entitlement to setaside the Official Secrets Act1923, which continuedto be in force evenafter India obtainedi n d e p e n d e n c ein 1947. Eachsuccessive Indiangov ernm entf o u n d t h elaw useful in

suppressinge f f o r t s a ttransparency.

This processg a v e a no p p o r t u n i t yto progressiveand committedpeople in otherparts of India andother paradigms tocome together to formthe National Campaign forPeoples Right to Information. (NCPRI). The first

effort to draft the law was made, ironically, at the LalBahadur Shastri National Institute for Administration,the training school for the bureaucrats. The effort totake the drafting process further was spearheaded bythe Press Council of India, headed by an ex-justice ofthe Supreme Court, Justice P.B. Savant. The birth of the

O greatest signifcance in this struggle has been the grow-ing understanding even among the non-literate people thatthis right is critical to their other livelihood entitlements.The struggle has illustrated that the Right to Inormation isnot only a component o our Right to Freedom o Speech

and Expression but is also a part o our undamental rightunder Article 21 o the Constitution the Right to Lie andLiberty. The villagers o central Rajasthan have understood,and have made a large section o enlightened opinion in thecountry understand, that access to records o development

work in villages would help in obtaining the minimum wage,the entitlement under the ration quota and the medicinesthe poor should receive in public health centers. It wouldalso help in preventing abuse by the police, and even inpreventing delay and subteruge in implementation o otherlivelihood entitlements.

It is this perspective that led to the issue becoming a parto the mainstream political debate in Rajasthan, and led to

the passage frst o Right to Inormation provisions in theState Panchayati Raj Act and then o a State Right to Inor-mation Act. It is another story, though, that the RajasthanRTI Act alls well short o the expectations o the people onseveral counts. And even this pales beore the more dramaticlessons when it comes to the implementation o the Rightto Inormation provisions in Rajasthan. It is clear to those

who have tried to use the legal entitlement that bureaucraticopposition to it is strong and entrenched. Unless there is avery strong enactment leaving no loopholes, it will become

just another provision adorning the statute but o little valueto the citizens.

Neelabh Misra (RTI Discourse in India. Associated with the

campaign since 1996, Neelabh Misra is currently DeputyEditor, Outlook Hindi, erstwhile special correspondent NewsTime, and author o a Mimeograph on RTI or the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP))

15 http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/india/legislation/rajasthan_rti_act.pd

16 This process was used by the MKSS or both the Rajasthan State RTILaw and the National Law.

Kheema Ram has

passed the 8th class and wouldnot even merit a job as a chaprasi in

the government today. But he has the mindo a skilled lawyer. He ought his frst battle to

access the inormation about illegal licenses or

alcohol shops in 1993. Since then ofcials are insome ways more araid o him than any one else inthe MKSS, because his knowledge and use o thelaw is phenomenal. He knows where to look, andwhat to fnd. He is earless, his instincts are o

a detective, and with a sharp understandingo the law he is a orce to reckon with.

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NCPRI took the campaign into the arena of advocacyand framing of law. The bill, known as the Press CouncilDraft, was sent to the Lok Sabha (Parliament) membersand all the State Governments for consideration.

The lawmakers and the grassroots strugglecontinued to dialogue in an innovativeand creative manner. The law could

not be drafted by the strugglingpeople, but there was an implicitunderstanding that theywere the users of the law,and therefore needed to beinvolved in the making of it.The momentum and energyalso came from the people.The MKSS campaign usedthe dharna and the streetcorner meeting to take thelaw to the people and get theirfeedback.

In every town, the campaigners

also met special groups, lawyers,academics, and others interested in theissue of transparency and corruption. Thedraft bill was discussed in detail and many amendmentsmade to the provisions. It was then handed to thespecialist groups, who put it together in the legalframework required for legislation.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government17developed a National Advisory Council to acquirethe views of political and social activists, economists,researchers, and other public fgures on various aspectsof governance. We participated in limited engagementwith this body and other government ofcials to urtherthe RTI Act.

The MKSS met with the administration, frst appealingfor information, then demanding greater transparencyand accountability when we were turned down. Werequested reasons for not having access to governmentrecords and fles, and asked sympathetic people withinthe administration for meetings organized around theissue of the Right to Information. The MKSS also madethe Act an election issue, both with the media andwith the political parties through the various sit-ins.Members of all parties were met independently withappeals and reasons why the RTI was so important tothe common person. In India, representatives of politicalparties can be met by seeking an appointment, oftensought through people with party afliations. MKSS

members met with members of all the political parties,asking if they would take a public stand on the Right toInformation. There was, however, no positive responsefrom them beyond facile platitudes on the issue ofbattling corruption. Rather, in many cases, it seemed anissue raised only to gain political mileage.

The more the need for an Act was discussed in the publicdomain the more we found that there were people whohad been battling silently and single-handedly in theirown areas against corruption of various kinds. For most

of these people, the RTI campaign and the public forumbeing provided in each town was seen as somethingthey could be a part of. It strengthened their hands,and they also saw it as their own battle. These debatesthen generated more ideas and greater improvements

that could be included into the draft.

Networking with other movements and

groups working on minority rights,issues of displacement due to large

development projects, and otherproblems was also a means ofincluding more and more peoplein the debate for the National Act.People volunteered time to be partof the sit-ins, the meetings, and theother fora. The very fact that theissue was being continually debatedon public forums and peoples ideas

and views sought on the issue made itsomething everyone felt they owned.

Therefore, even today, no one individual

or group or organization can claim rightsto the success of the campaign. It has beenthe outcome of the struggle of many, many

people, and each one has contributed to it. The successof the movement is owed to the movement itself andthe fact that it embraces every single person in its foldwho has taken time for it.

While the draft bill kept being taken back to the publicdomain time and again, the battle pushing for a NationalAct was on. There was initially a demand for legislationat the panchayat level (local bodies of governance),which then led to the demand for a state Act, and wasthen followed by a demand for a national legislation.Also, the various legislations were continually tested, to

see if it was being implemented in the spirit with whichit was intended. Any instances of non-implementationwere recognized and highlighted so they could beaddressed. Mechanisms of implementation wereexamined, and changes initiated accordingly.

PARTICIPATIoN IN THE ELECToRAL PRoCESSTransparency became crucially important in the interfacebetween the ruling class and the people. The lack oftransparency in local administration stemmed fromthe corruption in the electoral process. One of theimportant aspects of the MKSS shift in strategies wasour decision to experiment with the use of transparencyto cleanse the Panchayatelection process. Withouthonest people in ofce and a system that is transparent

and accountable, there could not be any change in thepattern of governance.

In 2000, when Panchayatelections were declared, threeMKSS members offered to stand. The MKSS, after seriousdeliberations, set down some non-negotiable ethicalstandards, and made them public. These included amanifesto, which the MKSS candidate had to draftaccording to MKSS transparency and accountabilitynorms, and a ceiling on campaign expenditures. Two of

17 The UPA government came to national power in India in 2004.

Since the demandor transparency was born

out o the MKSS campaign,it is contextualized in the political

philosophy o the organization. Both theRTI Act and the Employment Guarantee

Act ollowed a process that involved peoplein law-making. It was a dialectic where thelaw kept getting ramed and continually

reerred back or veriication andacceptance. (MKSS Journal)

MKSS Journal


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the three MKSS candidateswon the elections, andin their tenure of fiveyears were able to takethe campaign furtherin understanding boththe limitations and

the extent to whichthe system could beused. One reason thatthe institutional socialaudit, patterned on the

jan sunwais, became apart of law in the Stateof Rajasthan has beentheir presence within thesystem, enabling the MKSS tounderstand the potential fromwithin.

In January 2000, as part of theircampaigning, MKSS candidates who contested

in the Panchayatelection for Sarpanch took a novel stepby releasinga manifesto promising a transparent andaccountable Panchayat. This was something none ofthe other candidates had thought of doing. The MKSSmanifesto, one side of a page with bullet-points in redink, invited voters to put the Panchayatspowers inthe peoples hands.

The manifesto declared that the Panchayatwould:

pay ull minimum-wages or its work

open all o its or scrutiny to the people under theRight to Information Act

hold regular Ward Sabha and Gram Sabha (villageassembly) meetings to consult the people on all the

Panchayats activities, and keep election expenditures to a minimum (MKSS put

a cap of Rs 1,000).

Strateic impactThe Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed, andhas been in place since 2005. The UPA governmentspromise, made in the National Common MinimumProgramme, of a better RTI law was tabled and passedby parliament in 2005. But, to their credit, this timeround the government fulfilled its promise on theright to information, and with the creation of theNational Advisory Council, the dialectic between publicconsultation and policy became sharper and clearer.

This has not, however, taken away the bureaucraticdesire to keep government processes under wrap.The law was passed despite the bureaucracy. Thepolitical will that ensured compliance will be a mysterythat history will resolve. For the present, the RTI lawgives the leverage to seriously question and stop thegovernment from rolling on without control. It is a smallbut powerful tool.

The system has hit back with non-compliance andblatant violations of provisions of the Act. Nevertheless,

the Act has empowered thecitizenry to continuallydemand transparency andaccountability from thesystem in an informed andorganized manner. Mostimportantly, it has drawn

the apathetic into thebusiness of democraticquestioning that enforcesaccountability. When thechai wallah (tea vendor)

asked to see the log bookof a District Collector, the

latter called the campaignofce in Delhi to ask whether

he really needed to inform theapplicant. The answer was, yes,

he had to. The RTI is a leveler thatour system needs. As far as the Act is

concerned, there is no doubt at all that agreat change is seeping into governance patterns. It is

clear that we have the right to question and that wealso have the right to get a response from those peoplewho are there to serve us. There are, however, manyissues and challenges that we still face today.

The positives are:

There is a penalty clause in the Act, which can beinvoked if information is not provided on time or iffalse information is provided.

The highest number o applications being made (asstated by the Chief Information Commissioner) are byserving ofcers who want to know details o postings

/ transfers / empanelments, etc.

There is a new culture being introduced in the areao governance. Ofcials now think ten times beoredoing something that is wrong or ear that the flemight be accessed under the Right to InformationAct in the future.

A l l d e b a t e s o n

transparency and accountabilitycould not be completed without coming

back to the electoral process. When we had aconsultation in Jaipur in 2003 with the Vigilance

Commissioner to the Government o India, AshokGehlot, Chie Minister at that time made a candid

statement about the necessity o making party unds

transparent. A newly elected woman Sarpanch in 2000made another candid statement in Bagmal, Asan panchayat,Ajmer District about how i she did not embezzle the

development unds that came to her Panchayat, she couldnot recover rom her indebtedness, rom mortgage

and loans or contesting the elections. Somewherein this whole paradigm, the way people win

elections determines an important part othe oundation o governance.

MKSS Journal

Candidates who won rom the nearby Panchayats spent

up to Rs 100,000 each. They slaughtered goats, distributed

alcohol. They will recover their money rom development

unds. They will recover our times the amount they spend,

Tej Singh (Teju) said, outlining the cycle o corruption that

starts at the lowest level o the electoral process.

The MKSS candidates Narayan Singh (Panchayat Kush-

alpura) and Tej Singh (Panchayat Todgarh) won the elections,

against all expectations, setting a standard with an expendi-

ture o Rs. 860 in Toddgarh and Rs.1,600 in Kushalpura,

whereas their opponents spent around 40,000 and 100,000

Rupees, respectively, on their campaigns. (Interview with

Narayan Singh Sarpanch Kushalpura, Tej Singh-Sarpanch

Todgarh- in 2004). MKSS Journal


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Through the media and civil society groups there havebeen many campaigns that have used the RTI as aneffective anti-bribery, anti-corruption tool.

Increasingly, state governments are using this Act totry to promote accountability and transparency intheir welfare schemes.

The negatives are: The suo moto disclosures that are mandated by the Act,

through Section 4, have not yet been put into place intheir entirety; and this has been an uphill task.

The Chie Inormation Commission, as well as theState Information Commissions, are full of erstwhilebureaucrats. This has been seen as the major pitfallas well as drawback for any appeal mechanism, asthey are not very favourable in their approach andare reluctant to impose the penalty clause.

The biggest challenge remains the issue o ilenotings, a continuing battle between the public andthe civil servant. While the Act says it is mandatoryto show fle notings (e.g., the decisions taken,who took them, and what the comments were), theadministration has tried to bring in an amendment.This faced huge protests and widespread resistancefrom all quarters in 2007. While the issue is still aliveand the civil service is trying different ways to tryand subterfuge it, a vigilant public will oppose itvehemently at every step.

In addition to the success of the act itself, we havecontinued to use similar tactics and strategies tofurther the other work and wage issues that began ourcampaign. Our movement, for example, successfullyadvocated for a National Rural Employment GuaranteeAct (NREGA), which was passed in 2005. Among otherbenefts, the NREGA provides that anyone willing to dounskilled manual labour at the statutory minimum wageis guaranteed a minimum of 100 days of employmentannually.

Lessns learnedOver the years of our struggle for the right toinformation, we have learned many lessons abouteffective ways to mobilize and empower people andto advocate for change in India. While your humanrights issue and context may be very different fromours, much of what we have learned may be applicableto your struggles. I have outlined a few of the featuresof our movement that we think have contributed toour successes:

uSINg goVERNMENTS owN CoNTRADICTIoNSTo EMPowER PEoPLE AND PRoMoTE

DEMoCRACyOne of the most powerful tools we have as humanrights activists in India is actually the governments ownstatements and commitments. We have been able toeffectively use these expressions of hypocrisy to developcreative methods for demanding accountability.

For instance, electoral promises, and their translationinto the system of governance, are held to be sacred. So

it was that the promise of a law by the Congress Partyin Rajasthan in 2000 was seen as sacrosanct. Subsequentdemands for the passage of an RTI law in the State werestrengthened by holding the leaders to this electoralpromise.

IDENTIfyINg CuLTuRAL RESouRCESAnother reason for our successes is the use of local

cultural resources, such as song, theatre, and nationalcultural and political practices like theyatras, to engagelocal people in dialogue. Effective communication iscritical to a successful grassroots campaign. Throughthe use of these resources, we are able to make adirect, symbolic link between the root of the humanrights problem we are trying to address and the localpopulations experience with related abuses.

I encourage you to identify symbolic, fun, and creativetactics to keep activists and citizens energized. Sometimes,it can take a long time to reach a successful outcome,

In India we have a working democracy. We go to the pollsevery year and though we complain about the malaise in thevoting pattern, we are very sure that we want a democracy.Similarly, in spite o amending the Constitution so manytimes, we want Constitutional provisions and proprietymaintained. The Constitution we gave ourselves did en-

shrine principles o equality and justice, and the Chapteron undamental rights has oten bailed people out o im-possible situations violating human and other rights. Those

who govern us take their oath on the Constitution and arethereore bound by it. This empowers people to invoke thearticles and take recourse to appeals in the High Court andthe Supreme Court. It also questions the indierence o theState to gross violations o the rule o law.

What happened in the case o the RTI campaign was thatthe demands or the implementation o the Constitutionand the law seemed to ow rom a demand or democraticaccountability. This was in addition to the demand relatedto the transparency o accounts and the implementation oprojects and programmes meant or the poor. I a Sarpanchhas to keep his promise, so must the Chie Minister. There-ore the insistence that there should be compliance withthe promises made in the assembly by an elected leader, theChie Minister

Right to Know, Right to Live (English)

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