RTI

1. We must be clear NGO of the ilk that was literally ruining the country in various forms starting from swindling foreign funds in the name of poverty, eradication, orphanage etc to conversion activities to ruining the cabinet itself through NAC, a motley group of NGOs which has secreted elements like Arvind kejiriwal, Arunthathi Roy etc must first come out clear about their finances, links etc before claiming to be RTI activists. Actually these people must be barred from labeling themselves as RTI activists as it spoils the name of genuine RTI activists.

2. RTI also must not be misused like frivolous petitions in courts

3. RTI must not also be seen as an impediment to economic developmental activities which generate employment and which are also eco-friendly.

4. Minor compromises on certain aspects if that can enormously help or more than compensate in terms of benefit to larger population and economy then RTI must not be used as a stumbling block because such activities are like amputating a toe to avoid spread of Gangrene or taking bitter gourd or fenugreek on a regular basis to avoid Diabetes like that. what will happen is Govt officials may stop taking decisions to avoid facing trouble or replying to RTI queries, as it is we are as a nation suffering from lack of timely decision making

5. For example any place that has coal mine, cement factories, chemical factories, atomic power plants etc definitely cause at least certain harm to environment and health but for that reason we cannot avoid those activities nor can we be lax about following to take the necessary precautions, emergency services and disaster management services . These issues must be ensured that too not after calamity but as preventive and precautionary measures.

6. The problem is India has 500 laws out of hardly 5 is implemented fully and less than 3 is enforced but in China they have 5 laws and all of them are implemented fully, enforced compulsorily and non compliance is punished severely irrespective of whoever has done that.

7. In many activities in life certain things happen as a collateral damage or incidental benefit, for example a small boy has a father who murders someone and is imprisoned the poor boy will suffer without bread winner if the same father wins a lottery of few crores then that boy may enjoy many benefits.

8. Similarly the motive with which RTI was introduced was not to ensure compliance or to reward compliance or punish non- compliance. It was introduced to check activities of all departments if they did not act according to the dynasty that was ruling ,unfortunately that is bouncing back on them starting from 2G which they would have never imagined in English there is an idiom for that 'Hoist with your own petard'.

9. As it is nowadays bank managers don't use any discretionary powers and do not give loans and advances for fear of action against them.

10. I remember reading a joke about Indian government top official's lack of decision making skills

11. "A Manager’s Decision Making”

The manager of a large corporation got a heart attack, and the doctor told him to go for several weeks to a farm to relax. The guy went to a farm, and after a couple of days he was very bored, so he asked the farmer to give him some job to do.

The farmer told him to clean the shit of the cows. The farmer thought that to somebody coming from the city, working the whole life sitting in an office, it will take over a week to finish the job, but for his surprise the manager finished the job in less than one day.

The next day the farmer gave to the manager a more difficult job: to cut the heads of 500 chickens. The farmer was sure that the manager will not be able to do the job, but at the end of the day the job was done.

The next morning, as most of the jobs in the farm were done, the farmer asked the manager to divide a bag of potatoes in two boxes: one box with small potatoes, and one box with big potatoes.

At the end of the day the farmer saw that the manager was sitting in front of the potatoes bag, but the two boxes were empty. The farmer asked the manager: “How is that you made such difficult jobs during the first days, and now you cannot do this simple job?”

The manager answered: “Listen, all my life I’m cutting heads and dealing with shit, but now you ask me to make decisions.”

12. Oscar Wilde wrote once ' There must be moderation in everything including in moderation'

13. The department head is a wise, friendly old man, and one day, during an interview in his office he was asked, "Sir, What is the secret of your success?"

He said, "Two words." "And, Sir, what are they?" "Right decisions."

"But how do you make right decisions?" "One word."

He responded. "And, sir, What is that?" "Experience."

"And how do you get Experience?"

"Two words." "And, Sir, what are they?" "Wrong decisions."

14. We as a nation also have dubious distinction of perceiving the roles of professional like this:-Auditors to fudge accounts, bureaucrats to budge to everyone, criminals to dodge law through lawyers, politicians to nudge for bribes, media to prejudge everything , no one grudges judges selecting judges etc

15. Institutional reforms take time. It has taken 67 yrs for governance to become a part of Indian Govt. So we need to wait.