short story

Wish the rose never died...


“Raj we need to talk, I do understand you are busy these days. What I do not understand is that why don’t you get five minutes out of your twenty-four hours when you can talk to me. I’m not telling you to meet me everyday, but at least a phone call?”

“Ria my sweet heart, understand even my problems. I hardly get time for myself these days with so many work project and assignments lined up. Can I talk to you later because I’m busy with my friends going to gymnasium…ok.. bye ..take care. ” ...beep.

Ria once again stayed awake in the night only because Raj promised to call  her in the night. He  broke his promise once again like any other day and left Ria to assume that things ain’t fine with their relationship.

Day 03...

"Raj can we talk? I feel like talking to you. I am lonely and missing you very much.”
"Oh Ria, I’m having dinner with my family can I call you later on, " said Raj. Hangs up the call.

Ria sat near the window and gazed up in the sky. Looking at the moon brought back several memories. It wasn't long when Raj chatted on the phone, when they kept texting each other at every waking hour, when he showed how head over heels he was for her. "At least he pretended that way,"  she murmured.
Nostalgic Ria remembered the day when Raj proposed her for the first time. The hundred and one excuses she gave him for not accepting his proposal but ended up giving her heart to him after a few weeks of their perpetual encounter.

Tears kept rolling down her cheeks while cherishing those beautiful moments spent with Raj and then she looked at the rose plan was dying. Thats when she realized she almost forgot to water it. Ria left the plant untouched for days as she was so engrossed in herself. She forgot that something so beautiful, so fragile was desperately in need of care,love and attention without which it was certain  it would die...

It was too late for Ria to repent and and give the rose plant it’s life again.Even then she did not lose hope and wished that the rose will not survive. Days passed by, Ria’s wish remained unfulfilled and her prayer unheard. One day the rose on the plant died .

Since that up till now Ria never kept any flower vaaz in her room or at her house. Ria almost understood the philosophy of life and relationship when she fare welled the rose. How the red rose bloomed in the sight of the Sun and lost all that it had.It knew it would not remain in the bud to see the eternal winter mist .

She kept herself busy and completely engrossed in her studies and other hobbies.

Days passed by and then months. Raj frustrated with his life and now with his relationship with Ria accused her of betraying him and now have become very much addicted to alcohol. He never understood why Ria left him or rather “never tried to understand” her in Ria’s word. Raj made his life miserable for which he blamed Ria . Ria didn’t even came to know when she became so flushed out ,so stone-hearted..,may be when Raj was busy with  himself ,when he kept their relationship untouched ,uncared where Ria saw her love dying each day,romance withering and love…lost.
Lost somewhere in the winner mist or when she saw that the efforts were only from her side to keep their relationship alive.The communication gap between them brought Ria and Raj to such a phase where love couldn’t find it’s way

Victimization of Rising Voices in India

Victimization of Rising Voices in India

Though the Right to Information Act in India was passed in 2005 it provides inadequate safety and protection to the person seeking information. 

Right to Information is the power bestowed to people to report any wrongdoings, mismanagement or corruption in the system or functioning but RTI activists are the vulnerable human right defenders in India. Most of the time RTI activists are individuals who act alone following resentment or anger towards dishonesty or fraud they have witnessed. Taking the route of RTI they seek to investigate the underlying illegal activity which is kept undisclosed. These activists are common man and they inhabit in the same society as those involved in wrongful activities. There are cases where the corrupt officials or entities do not wish their activities to be exposed and therefore resort to illegal harassment threatening those who are seeking information and many a times even getting them killed. 

Undoubtedly, RTI Act has helped expose cases of corruption; it has not been a cakewalk for the users who have regularly been victimized for exposing wrongdoings in public offices. Around 75 harassment cases, 20 cases of murder and 45 cases of assaults have been highlighted till 2007 but there are more which goes unregistered and unnoticed by the media.

CASES OF VICIMIZATION

Several cases related to harassment and victimization of RTI users as whistleblowers has been reported by the media. RTI activists Lalit Mehta was brutally murdered in 2008 when he became a threat to contractor lobby and corrupt government officials related to NREGA. His mutilated body and a belt around his neck suggested he was strangled and his face smashed to deform it beyond recognition. The police buried the body as unidentified the same day and it was later exhumed by his colleagues and taken to his native village, where his last rites were performed.

A bureaucrat and the RTI activist Rinku Singh Rahi has been fighting corruption in his own department and state-run schemes since 2009. He was denied access to information and instead, an attempt on his life was made allegedly at the behest of Principal Secretary Navtej Singh and other department officials during the Mayawati government. He started a hunger strike in Lucknow hoping that the Akhilesh Yadav’s  Government would pay heed to his demands for a reply on his pending RTI application; a criminal investigation into the corruptions charges; and act against miscreants but instead was admitted to a psychiatric ward. And who can forget the murder of Amit Jethwa of Gujarat who used RTI to expose illegal mining in the Gir Forest area. BJP MP Dinu Boga whom the Gujarat police has given clean chit earlier was later arrested by the CBI. The unexplained deaths of RTI activists and whistleblowers prove that the RTI Act has threatened many powerful, unscrupulous powers that be.

An ex RTI activists on request of anonymity confessed that he has been harassed by Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India while saving areas outside the control of the Ministry, AAI and GMR. Famous RTI activists Subhash Agrawal too mentioned few incidents of abusive calls and an effort to attack him and the Doordarshan camera-team by employees of Municipal Corporation of Delhi. “There is one shocking episode where National Green Tribunal (NGT) tried its level best to harass me for which strict-most strictures were passed by Central Information Commission. CPIO at NGT on record admitted that he himself was not satisfied with response he sent me under his signature,” he added.

LAWS RELATED TO SEEKING INFORMATION

Cases of assault and harassments are seen more in Gujarat because of the presence of maximum number of activists and CSOs. Surprisingly, in Rajasthan there is only one Chief Information Commissioner and not a single Information Commissioner, thus more than 8,000 cases have been piled up on the desk. Agrawal says that things are entirely different in most of the States (except some like Maharashtra) where practically speaking the RTI Act is non-existent. He adds, “Maharashtra can be termed as one of the best States in implementation of the RTI Act. However much depends on attitude of public authorities also.” According to him corrupt authorities like municipal bodies in Delhi do not care at all because they are least bothered about penalty being imposed on them as they find it ‘profitable’ not responding to RTI petitions attracting maximum penalty of Rs 25000. Others are public-authorities like Supreme Court which respond for just sake of responding and avoid providing information.  

The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011 which was passed by the Parliament and received President’s assent on 9^th May, 2014 has not come to force till date. Cases of victimization of RTI users as a whistle blower are constantly highlighted in the news but hardly anything is done lawfully to protect their interests.  “In India identity of any whistle blower cannot be kept secret because of the corrupt organization, police and politician's involvement and at times due to interference of the media and far too many rival organizations wanting to remain in limelight. One or the other is bound to reveal the identity of the person blowing whistle,” says a former RTI activist.

The legal review of existing and drafted laws regarding right to information, protection of human rights, whistleblower protection and UN declaration on human rights covers generic law, including the draft Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Act (Whistleblower Protection Bill), Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act, 1993, sectoral laws including Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Indian Penal Code and Indian Evidence Act, case law, (e.g. court cases, decisions of information commissions) besides parliamentary debates. RTI Act and its rules should be uniform all over the country for all States and competent authorities should remove confusions and misuse of power to harass users of RTI Act, and as such there are two sections 27 and 28 of the RTI Act which should be repealed. “One Nation, One Rule should be the motto for the RTI Act in India,” quotes Agrawal.

 By Meghna Chukkath

(Part of this article was published in Bureaucracy Today Magazine)