The Ahmedabad police are now probing Gujarat Right to Information (RTI) activist Amit Jethwa’s last Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against BJP MP Dinubhai Solanki. The needle of suspicion point towards criminal gangs in Saurashtra and the Ahmedabad police will shortly leave for Junagadh for investigations.
Amit Jethwa’s murder has once again brought into sharp focus the obstacles in successfully implementing a legislation that was meant to expose corruption in the government.
The main hurdle seems to be the issue of RTI activists facing a threat to their lives.
Amit Jethwa, who was shot dead by unknown assailants on Tuesday evening, was trying to expose the nexus between officials, politicians and the mining mafia in Gujarat. His family has accused a BJP MLA of having a hand in the killing. (Read: RTI activist’s murder: Family accuses BJP MP)
Speaking to NDTV, National Advisory Council (NAC) member and activist Aruna Roy, who campaigned hard for the Right to Information Act, says whistleblowers face the biggest threat from the nexus between corrupt officials and the mafia.
“Actually you see the RTI works within the system of governance. So what should protect them is the regulatory systems which operate within government…the regulatory mechanisms which operate within government. It is also the administrative missionary that operates within government. Because very often it is that part of the government which is malfunctioning, which is threatened to be exposed, which is hand-in-glove with the mafia and then proceeds to take these kinds of horrendous steps to still voices of protest,” said Aruna Roy.
She also added that the NAC will take up the roadblocks in RTI.
“Actually the NAC in its first meeting decided that it would also look at the implementation of the flagship programs of UPA 1. So whether it is the Forest Bill or the RTI or the NREGA, these various acts will be covered under the general work of the NAC. So we will at some point of time take up RTI…the roadblocks in RTI.”
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