An enthusiastic beginning to the People's Referendum to demonstrate mass public resentment towards the proposed amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 marked the fifth day of the ongoing dharna at Jantar Mantar here today, even as Sandeep Pandey's hunger strike went on for the fourth consecutive day. Ex-parlimentarian Kuldeep Nayar cast his first vote in favour of keeping the law as it presently stands. Eminent personalities such as Prabash Joshi, B.N Yugandhar (member, Planning Commission), B.D Sharma (former Commissioner, SC/ST Commission) and noted activist Swami Agnivesh also came to the venue of the dharna to cast their votes, besides many hundreds of activists and supporters of the campaign present at the protest. The referendum was also taken to a couple of schools in Delhi, Lady Shri Ram College and Jawaharlal Nehru University later in the evening. The Hela Qayal Party, a group of farmer-singers from Sawai Madhopur district, Rajasthan, communicated the spirit of the RTI Act to the people with their powerful lyrics and music.
 
"The struggle for file notings is not new – 10 years ago, when the people's movement for a right to information act was gaining strength, and the Press Council of India held meetings with bureaucrats, the officers said they would give information but not file notings. They are saying the same thing today. It is our duty that before it gets passed in Parliament, we fight against it. People should vote in crores for this referendum so that Parliamentarians get scared before they even bring in such an amendment," said Prabhash Joshi. Raising slogans like "Hum ladenge, hum jitenge (we shall fight, we shall win)," Swami Agnivesh asserted that we should not let anyone take away this right from us.
 
Support also came in the form of letters written by the secretary and coordinator of Resident Welfare Association (RWA's) Federation to a Congress Lok Sabha MP, requesting him not to vote in favour of the amendment when it came to the Parliament.
 
Earlier in the day, a session on the use of the RTI Act in exposing corruption and arbitrary use of power in environmental issues was discussed. Suman Sahai of the Gene Campaign introduced the session. Divya from Centre for Science and Environment spoke of how they have now raised many questions on the distribution of water in Delhi and obtained information. Karamat from Pakistan spoke of how Coca Cola, Pepsi and Nestle had taken over even religious monuments in the name of conservation in Pakistan and were bombarding people with their advertisements. This was also strongly condemned by Dr. Sandeep Pandey. Prof. V.P Srivastav, a professor of Mathematics demonstrated to the people with a simple litmus test as to how harmful drinks like Coke were to one's health. Cautioning people against privatisation, Prof. Trilochan Shastry (Professor, IIM) said, "If we privatize everything, whom will we demand information from?" Speaking on the need for learning from each others' experiences, Tony Tujan from International Initiative on Corruption and Governance, Phillipines said that just as how there were issues on privatization and corruption in India, they existed too in Phillipines and there was a need to international co-operation and support for one another.
 
Many RTI activists who had come from other states like UP, Chattisgarh and Orissa also shared their experiences with the use of the RTI Act during and after the Drive against Bribe campaign in July.
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Bibhav Kumar
KABIR
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