THE ANATOMY OF CORRUPTION:

EXERCISING THE PEOPLES RIGHT TO

INFORMATION
By ARVIND KEJRIWAL
2006 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
for Emergent Leadership
Presented at the 48th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Lecture Series
30 August, 2006, Manila, Philippines

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen!

Every citizen in India pays taxes. Even the beggar on the street pays taxes.
When he buys a piece of soap or a matchbox, he pays sales tax, excise
duty and so many other taxes. The governments run on these taxes. This
money belongs to the people. The Government exists to serve them. We
are the masters. But it is the duty of every master to take accounts from
his servant at regular intervals. Did we do that in the last fifty years? No.
Not because we did not want to do it but because there were no legal or
administrative means through which we could do this. The Right to
Information law provides that opportunity to the people to directly hold
their governments accountable.
As early as in 1976, Supreme Court of India declared Right to Information
as a part of our fundamental rights. It declared that Right to Information
is inherent in Freedom of Speech and Expression, which is a fundamental
right. The Supreme Court said that the people cant speak or express

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themselves unless they had information. The Court further said that the
people have this right because we live in a democracy, where people are
the masters. The masters have a right to know how they are being
governed. The Supreme Court further said that the people have a right to
know how their money, collected as taxes, is being spent.
I would briefly take you through Parivartans experiences and evolution.
Parivartan was started in January 2000 to address extortionist type of
corruption, where a person has to pay a bribe to get his legitimate dues
from the Government. The amount of money changing hands is much less
in extortionist corruption. You may have to pay a few hundred rupees to
get your telephone connection. But this corruption is much more
dangerous. It affects every citizen. Every citizen is turning corrupt. So
much so that the psyche of the entire nation has turned corrupt. People
have started justifying corruption as a way of life. Any country where the
entire population is corrupt cannot progress.
There was a deep sense of anguish inside us against the levels of
corruption in Indian society. But we had no answers on how to address
that. If we told people not to pay bribes, they would ask us, How do we
get our work done? So, we started two departments. We started telling
people, Dont pay bribes in Income Tax Department and DVB
(electricity department). If you have any problems, come to us. We will
get your work done free of cost. Therefore, Parivartan was born as an ad
hoc reaction to our sense of anguish.
For two years, we kept collecting peoples grievances in these two
departments. We would then submit them collectively to the Department
heads. This had an impact. All grievances which would go through us
would get immediately resolved. We also started sitting at the entrance of
some of the offices of electricity department and would encourage people
not to pay bribes inside. This created flutter inside.

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By accepting the grievances of public in this manner and intervening on

their behalf, Parivartan started realizing that though this provided
temporary relief to the people, it did not empower them in any manner.
They became dependent on Parivartan for any problem. This was not
sustainable. Parivartan was struggling with this dilemma when we read in
the newspapers in December 2001 that Delhi Government had enacted a
Right to Information Act. Therefore, Parivartans tryst with RTI was
accidental.
We procured a copy of this Act and found that it gave five rights to a
citizen any citizen could ask any questions from the Government or seek
any information; one could inspect any Government files or documents;
one could take copies of any government documents; one could inspect
any government work; and one could demand sample of material used in
any government work. Under the law, an officer is supposed to provide
information within 30 days of application or else, a penalty could be
imposed on the guilty official at the rate of Rs 50 per day of delay up to a
maximum of Rs 500 per application. If you do not get information or you
were not satisfied with the information received, you could file an appeal.
We tried RTI for the first time in February 2002. There was this gentleman
- Mr Ashok Gupta, who approached us with a grievance, that he was being
demanded Rs 5000 bribe for a new electricity connection. Since he had
been consistently refusing to pay the same, he was denied a connection
for the last two years. Ordinarily, we would have accepted his grievance
and pursued it ourselves. This time, we refused to accept his grievance.
We drafted an RTI application for him and asked him to directly go and
submit his application. He did that and within ten days some officials from
electricity department came to his house with necessary papers for the
new connection and told him, Here is your new connection. We are sorry
for the delay. Can you please take back your RTI application now? This
was nothing short of magic. How did it happen? What did Ashok Gupta
ask in his application?
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He asked:
! I made an application for a new electricity connection on such and
such date. Please give me the daily progress made on my application
so far i.e. when did my application reach the table of which officer,
how many days did it stay on his table and what action did he take
on my application in that time?
! Please give me the names and designations of the officials who were
supposed to take action on my application and who did not do so?
! According to the rules, the connection should have been given
within 30 days of my application. However, this rule has been
violated in my case. Please tell me what action would be taken
against these officials for violating this rule and by when.
! By when would I get my connection now?
In ordinary circumstances, such an application would be thrown into a
dustbin. But this law says that they have to reply within 30 days. If they
dont do that, their salary would be deducted at the rate of Rs 50 per day
of delay. And if they provide false information, again a penalty, up to a
maximum of Rs 1,000 could be imposed on them. So, they have to provide
correct and complete information within 30 days. Now, it is not easy to
provide this information. The first question is please provide daily
progress made on my application. There is no progress made. But they
cant write it in that many words. They cant write that they did not take
any action on his application in the last two years. Otherwise, it would be
an admission of guilt on paper. And no government servant would like to
do that. The second question is please tell me the names and
designations of officers who were to take action on my application and
who did not take action. The moment they provide these names, it is fixing
of responsibility. Again, no officer wants any responsibility to be fixed
against him. So, the moment you file such an application, they end up
doing your job.
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If this had happened only to Ashok Gupta, we would have thought that
this was an exception. In Delhi Vidyut Board, we got almost 200 people
file similar applications. They had various works pending for several
months like faulty bills, pending electricity connection, replacement of
meters etc. When they filed applications under the Right to Information
Act asking similar questions, almost everyones work was done within a
few days. We got similar applications filed by several people, who had
work pending in many other Departments and their job was done within a
few days. We used it in water department, social welfare department,
education department etc. Wherever anyone had any pending work in any
Government department, which was his legitimate due and was being
denied to him due to demand or expectation of a bribe, the work would be
done in a few days as soon as one filed an application under RTI Act.
I would give you another example. Nannu is a daily wage earner. He
makes his living by working as a laborer on road construction works. He
lost his food card and applied for a duplicate card in January 2004.
According to the rules, he should have been issued a duplicate card with
10 days of application. But for three months, he kept running around.
None listened to him. Many times, he would not even be allowed to enter
the government office as he has a very shabby appearance. Three months
later, he came to our office seeking help. We told him about the Right to
Information Act and made an application for him. He himself went and
submitted the application. On the fifth day, an inspector came from the
Food Department and told Nannu with folded hands, Nannuji, your card
is ready. Why dont you come and collect your card? When Nannu went
to collect his card the next day, the Food and Supply Officer (FSO), who
is the head of a Circle, escorted Nannu to his room, offered him tea, gave
him his card and said, Nannuji, this is your card. Now, why dont you
take back your application under the Right to Information Act? The same
Nannu, who was a persona non-grata till a few days back, suddenly
became a VIP in the eyes of the very same officers.

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Thereafter, Parivartan changed its strategy from accepting public

grievances directly to educating them on how to use RTI to solve their
own problems. So now, the people in India need not pay bribes for their
legitimate work in any Government department. RTI often works faster
than bribes. It does not make economic sense to pay bribes any more.
We also decided to expand the scope of our activities from just dealing
with public grievances to demanding accountability from the Government
on various accounts.
In a unique initiative, records related to 68 development works (like
construction of roads, lanes and drains and installation of hand pumps etc)
worth about Rs 14.2 million undertaken by Municipal Corporation of
Delhi in two slums in East Delhi were obtained using RTI. These records
were publicly discussed in a public hearing on 14th December 2002
attended by almost 1000 people including local residents of the area,
journalists and eminent personalities. The contracts were publicly read out
and local residents testified about the status of works. It was estimated
that items/works for almost Rs 7 million were missing. For instance, out
of 29 hand pumps paid for, only 15 had actually been installed. Out of 29
electric motors paid for, none had been installed. Many roads and streets
existed only on paper. It acted as a model of how people can hold their
municipalities accountable.
During this time, we were approached by several poor people that they
were not getting proper rations. Government of India spends Rs 260
billion annually on food subsidy. Through its Public Distribution System,
it attempts to provide subsidized grains to about 65 million families
identified as living below poverty line through a chain of shops called
ration shops. However, the leakages are so enormous that it has rendered
the entire program meaningless. In February 2002, a very poor woman
called Triveni approached us complaining that she had not received any
food grains from the Government for the last several months. Triveni is a

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poor woman, who lives in a slum colony in East Delhi. She holds a food
card issued by the government to the poorest of the poor. Triveni filed an
application under the Right to Information Act asking for the quantity of
ration issued to her as per records and also copies of cash memos
purported to have been issued to her. After a month, she received a reply
stating that she had been issued 25 Kgs of wheat @ Rs 2 per Kg and 10
Kgs of rice @ Rs 3 per Kg every month in the last three months. The cash
memos showed thumb impressions having been made in her name. She is
a literate woman. She never puts thumb but always signs. Naturally, the
thumb impressions do not belong to her but are fakes. This shows that the
shopkeeper had been drawing her ration by faking thumb impressions in
her name for the last so many months. Triveni was shocked. But now she
was equipped with evidence to proceed against the shopkeeper. Before
she could take any action, the shopkeeper came to her house and pleaded
with her not to take any action and that he would mend his ways in future.
Since then, Triveni is getting right amount of ration at the right price for
the three years.
Encouraged by Trivenis example, we decided to do it on a large scale.
Parivartan, along with a number of people living in slum areas in Delhi
sought, and in some cases were successful in obtaining, records of ration
shopkeepers in various parts of Delhi. When these records were physically
verified, the findings were nothing less than shocking. Almost 93% of the
food was being siphoned off by the shopkeepers by making false
signatures of the cardholders in records. In most areas, the people had
been given to believe that the government had stopped sending rations.
People living in one slum area had not received even a single grain for the
last so many years. But when the records came out, people were shocked
to see how ration was, in fact, being siphoned off month after month by
the shopkeeper.

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Distribution records of shop owners, obtained in several areas in Delhi,

were made public. This exposed the corruption being indulged in by these
shop owners. In some areas, this was sufficient to force the shop owners
to mend their ways. But wherever they did not still improve their conduct,
formal complaints were made along with the evidence collected through
Right to Information. In response, the Delhi Government cancelled shops
in some areas.
The result of all these initiatives has been that in a number of slum areas
in Delhi, almost all the families have started getting their full entitlements
of rations, whereas earlier almost 90% of it was being diverted.
In this whole process, Parivartan workers were physically attacked by the
ration shop owners several times. There have been six attacks so far. In
some of the earlier attacks, Parivartan workers were beaten up and their
records were burnt. But in December 2004, ration shop owners slit the
throat of Santosh, who has been in the forefront in Sundernagari. But there
has been an immense support from the public. After the attack on Santosh,
a large number of families decided to forego their rations for the month of
February as a mark of protest. The call for satyagraha was given by about
500 families, who had gathered to celebrate Republic Day. Ultimately,
almost 5500 families did not take rations in February. This resulted in
Delhi Government agreeing to a series of systemic changes in the PDS.
Now, the records of all the shop owners are being thrown open for public
inspection every month. This is a historic order. It is for the first time that
the Government records are being thrown open regularly for public
inspections in this manner.
Parivartan has also been encouraging individuals and other citizens
associations like resident associations to use RTI in their own areas.
Uday is a software engineer. He lives in Vasant Kunj in New Delhi and
works at HCL in NOIDA. Everyday, he takes the Ring Road opposite IIT
Delhi. In February 2005, he noticed that the road between IIT flyover and
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Panchsheel flyover was constructed and it came off within 10 days. His
blood boiled. He filed an application under RTI asking three questions:
! I want to inspect all the files and documents related to the
construction of this road.
! I want to inspect this road
! I want to take sample of material used in the construction of this
road. Please tell me when should I come?
He was given a date and time for inspection. In the meanwhile, he was
approached by the concerned Junior Engineer and other officials, who
requested him to withdraw his application, but he refused. When we went
to inspect that road, the concerned Executive Engineer informed us that
the whole stretch has been relaid two days before the inspection. We could
take a look at it and if we pointed to any more discrepancies, they would
also be addressed. This could be done because the payment had not been
made to the contractor so far and the contractor could be forced to redo
the work under the same contract.
These examples clearly show how RTI is redefining the relationship
between the government and the people.
All corruption takes place in files. Often 100 meters of road is made but
payment is made for 400 meters. Officials know that everything would
remain buried in files. At best some one from vigilance or audit might
come to inspect them and they would keep their mouths shut after taking
their dues. But suppose, when the road is being made you file an
application that you would like to inspect the road and all files related to
its construction and that you should be called for inspection, whenever the
road were complete, it would have a great impact. Now, the engineer
would think twice before making fake entries. He does not know who you
are, what is your background? He just knows that someone from the
public would come and inspect the files and the work. He does not know

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what would you do with the information, would you make a complaint to
the police, would you release it to the media? I am sure that when you go
for inspection, you would not find any wrong entries. And if you also ask
for sample of material, it would make a difference in the quality of
material too.
And imagine if the citizens started filing applications for every
government work that they saw, it would make a huge dent in corruption.
In one of the most unique cases of the use of RTI, about 9000 pages were
obtained under RTI Act regarding a World Bank funded water
privatization project in Delhi which revealed that it was severely flawed.
It created public uproar and the Government put the project on hold.
RTI has not just helped the public. It has also strengthened the hands of
honest officers. Some senior officers told me that now, they are able to
say no to politicians who ask for illegal favors saying that they would be
in trouble if someone obtained their files. Fear of transparency and public
scrutiny has also reduced the number of people putting pressures on them.
One senior officer told me how he resisted pressures from a political party
to spend public money for their political activities. He was victimized to
no end for his resistance. He wished if RTI had been there at that time,
public disclosure of all his notings could have prevented his victimization.
As I said, theoretically, the people are the masters and the governments
exist to serve them. However, in practice, the government officials behave
like our masters and the public is made to plead before them. RTI is
clearly redefining this relationship.
My talk should not give an impression that RTI is panacea for all ills. It is
not. But certainly, this is one of the most concrete steps that has been taken
after independence to strengthen democracy and to empower people. The
balance of power was heavily tilted in favor of bureaucrats and politicians
all these years. RTI tilts it in favor of the people.
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Much more needs to be done in the sphere of governance. For instance,

what happens after you expose corruption under RTI? You make
complaints to various government authorities, but they do not take any
action. This does not mean that we should not use RTI. In many cases,
just filing an RTI often leads to improvements. And when you expose past
mistakes, it certainly improves future. But we also need to work towards
a system wherein the government is obliged to take action on the
complaints filed by the people. Our study of various laws and systems
reveals several critical deficiencies in anti-corruption laws and systems.
We are working in that direction now.
Let my talk also not give an impression that RTI is some kind of a fight
with the Government or its officials. It is an extremely powerful weapon
in our hands. It casts an equally greater responsibility on the people to use
this weapon with extreme care and responsibility. When you give ten
rupees to your son and ask him to get something from the market, you ask
him for accounts when he is back. You do not ask for accounts to find
faults with him. You do that as a part of a process, as your duty, as a matter
of routine. Similarly, we should ask for accounts from the Government
and about its activities, not to find faults with them but as a process and
as a part of our duty to engage in our democracy.
Lot of people ask me is it possible to end corruption? My answer is
No. We cannot dream of a world which would be free of all injustices
and bribery. But we can certainly dream of a world in which every
individual would be empowered to fight injustice. Right to Information
empowers the most ordinary man.
In the end, I would like to say that Right to Information is about truth
coming out in public domain. It is about transparency. It is about ethical
governance. This cannot work one way. It has to work both ways. So,
when you ask information from the Government and expect it to be
transparent, ethical and truthful, let us introspect and ask ourselves do

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we have the moral authority to demand transparency from others? Are we

as transparent and truthful as we expect government officials to be? In
many departments, when you go seeking information, you would face
several questions from the officials about yourself. Though legally, the
officials are not entitled to ask such questions and it would be easy for
you to dismiss their questions legally, but it would certainly set you
thinking and you would not be able to dismiss them for long. Right to
Information Act has started the journey for a transparent and ethical
governance. Can we increase its ambit and start a journey for an ethical
society and try to be as truthful and transparent in our relationships with
society?
I end with these thoughts and am extremely grateful to Ramon Magsaysay
Foundation for giving me this opportunity to interact with you all.
Thank You.

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