Police arrests RTI Activists despite of assurance by President Kalam
Friday October 13, 2006 

Today President of India Mr Kalam was addressing a gathering of Government and non-governmental organizations and individuals working on Right to Information (RTI) in India in Vigyan Bhawan, to mark the opening of National RTI Convention. During his speech, few activists of Parivartan and Asha Parivar opened up two banners with the following messages on them: “SACK CIC – SAVE RTI” and “President please allow us to speak for 2 minutes”. This was indeed a very peaceful display by activists and no slogan shouting or any attempt to disrupt the meeting was made. President continued to address the gathering. After the President, Mr OP Kejriwal spoke. After which, an announcement was made on behalf of President of India that RTI activists (who demanded President to give them 2 minutes) are welcome to send an email to President and then schedule an appointment to make their case. The meeting came to an end peacefully.
 
When 7 RTI activists of Parivartan came out of Vigyan Bhawan, Police arrested them, including Manish Sisodiya, who has been instrumental in shaping the campaign and engaging people with the RTI movement. Those arrested have been taken to Tughlaqabad Police Station.
 
This is very undemocratic for Police to arrest people despite of the fact that President of India agreed to give them an audience. Also is noteworthy that the display of banner was done in an extremely peaceful manner and no attempt was made to disrupt the meeting or disturb the President’s address in any way. Our democracy must allow space to dissent peacefully and in righteous manner, and if this space to dissent is also curbed, then it raises serious questions on our democracy itself.
 
We demand Government agencies to ensure that those arrested be released immediately and police should apologise for this undue harassment. Otherwise people of this country will be left with no option but to join hands for a nationwide stir against the arrests of 7 RTI activists in Delhi today.
 
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For more details please contact: Dr Sandeep Pandey (c/o Mr Aridamanjit Singh - 9312348900), email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it