The truth, we are told with a quivering lip, will set us free. So one can surmise that selected truth will set us somewhat free. With the Union Cabinet reportedly approving an amendment to the Right to Information Act, 2005 — excluding ‘notings’ made by officials on files related to all areas except social and development sector projects — there is concern that only a shaded light will now be allowed to be shed on matters of public inquiry. In December 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had instructed the Department of Personnel and Training to change the rules so as to let file notings also come under the public gaze. He had, however, limited this openness to government “plans, schemes, programmes and projects” related to development and social issues, maintaining that no names — of individuals or organisations — be made public under the RTI Act. So what is so scary about public eyes falling on the notes made by bureaucrats on the margins of files? The government thinks that it would open up the floodgates to name-calling, vendetta and perhaps pie-fights. We think that it is looking at the matter from the wrong end of the telescope. The people have the right to know not only what government decision has been taken but why and how it has been taken. Therefore, the need to have access to the notings.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi has stated that ‘precautions’ against misuse of official information are in place in the US, Britain and Australia as well. He, however, skirts the fact that in these three countries, the disclosure of information to the public is a rule rather than an exception. To counter valid worries, there could be a model for India that incorporates a time-bound exemption of official information for public inquiry (as in the US), or the requirement to prove that a particular information must be kept off-limits so as to protect a person (as in Australia). But to blanket out notings that fall outside the rubric of governmental ‘social and development projects’ (itself an undefined term) is being neither here nor there.