Ethics in Governance and Use of Right To Information To Bring Transparency & Efficiency

Update: This Article has been circulated among 16,00,000 (16 Lakh) people so far!

This Article, Published in Employment News

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being able to remake ourselves.”

-          Mahatma Gandhi

Growing calls for upliftment of ethical standards of individuals in recent times has been fueled by a lengthy and extensive debate on the question that whether moral characteristics of an organization are largely independent of those of individuals comprising it. Going into that debate is outside the scope of this article. However, what has become clear from the debate is that systemic factors by themselves do significantly affect moral characteristics of an organization.

Ethics are important not only because it creates a more just society, but also, more importantly, from the point of view of personal contentment of the person who is ethical or unethical. Ethical proclivities create a win-win situation for the individual as well as the society. The relationship between happiness and ethics is bi-causal in the sense that personal ethics affects one’s happiness while happiness also affects ethical preferences. Research has shown that happiness increases in ethical proclivities and that greater happiness results in improved ethical judgments thus creating a synergy between ethics and self-esteem. The results from a research on American Marketing Association members indicate that management experts generally believe that ethics and social responsibility are important components of organizational effectiveness.

Loss of ethics would result in collapse of social structure and complete chaos. The role of ethics in our society is very important because it is the basic beliefs and standards that make everything run smoothly. Sense of ethics helps in creating a climate in which we trust that at least some basic level of morality is assured. For example, because we believe our doctors are ethical, we feel certain we can trust their diagnoses. The atmosphere of universal distrust that would result from collapse of ethics would bring the entire humanity to a screeching halt as no business would ever be possible.

One of the most important systemic factors that determine moral characteristics of governance is Transparency. In India, it is the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (OSA) that has been regarded in many quarters as being primarily responsible for the excessive secrecy in government.  Section 5 of this Act provides for punishment for unauthorized disclosure of Official secrets but omits to define secrets. This has invited sustained criticism and demand for its amendment.

The Report of the Working Group constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri H. D. Shourie on “Right to Information and Transparency, 1997” recommended a comprehensive amendment of Section 5(1) of OSA to make its penal provisions applicable only to violations affecting national security. The First Report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission released in June 2006 under the chairpersonship of Shri Veerappa Moily agrees with that recommendation thus, “While recognizing the importance of keeping certain information secret in national interest, the Commission is of the view that the disclosure of information has to be the norm and keeping it secret should be an exception.  OSA, in its present form is an obstacle for creation of a regime of freedom of information, and to that extent the provisions of OSA need to be amended. The Commission, on careful consideration agrees with the amendment proposed by the Shourie Committee, as it reconciles harmoniously the need for transparency and the imperatives of national security without in anyway compromising the latter”. It further, quite appreciably, goes on to recommend complete repeal of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

While the OSA is one of the most glaring examples of our archaic laws smelling of colonialism, there is no dearth of such laws and practices. For example, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 prohibits the giving of evidence in a court of law derived from unpublished official records relating to affairs of State except with the permission of the Head of the Department. Furthermore, quite absurdly, Section 124 of the Act stipulates, “No public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence when he considers that the public interests would suffer by the disclosure”. While some arguments may be given for thus protecting the Head of a Department from compulsion to produce evidence which is with him/her by virtue of his official appointment, giving such a privilege to every “public officer” greatly thickens the veil of secrecy and is a gracious invitation to the proverbial Kamdev, the God of Temptation. The Law Commission in its 69^th report in 1977 and 88^th report in 1983, the Shourie Committee in 1997 and the Administrative Reforms Commission in 2006 has recommended revision of this Act.

A huge portion of Indian public is frustrated with the inability of governmental institutions to adequately resolve the wide range of difficult issues facing them. The good news is that an ever-growing number of people have been demanding to be brought into the decision-making process in a meaningful way. Citizens want to be involved from beginning to the end in governance matters. If this happens, accountability of governmental institutions would increase significantly.

However, it has been seen throughout the world that even honest Governments fail to involve citizens to a non-negligible extent. Research has shown that the primary reason for the same is that the Governments don’t trust the judgment of its citizens. Another important reason is also the widely held belief that it is the reluctance to share power that stops Governmental officers from distributing power among the citizenry. Indeed, in the current Governance landscape in India, with numerous pressure groups and nervous bureaucracy, Citizen Involvement may well be seen as adding too much delay but little value. The issue becomes graver because of the ever-increasing trend in politics of giving priority to securing the vote-bank which makes efforts to please everyone and offend no one.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) is a landmark legislation and by far the single most empowering one in the history of India. For the first time, people have been given a framework under which they can ask questions to public servants to keep them accountable. Earlier, almost all such questions met with reprimand from public servants.

RTI has been seen as the key towards strengthening participatory democracy and ushering in people centered governance. Access to information can empower the poor and the weaker sections of society to demand and get information about public policies and actions, thereby leading to their welfare.

RTI opens up government’s records to public scrutiny, thereby arming citizens with a vital tool to inform them about what the government does and how effectively. Transparency in government organisations makes them function more objectively. Information about functioning of government also enables citizens to participate in the governance process effectively.

RTI is very comprehensive and covers almost all matters of governance and has the widest possible reach, being applicable to government at all levels – Union, State and Local as well as recipients of government grants. Access to information under RTI is extensive with relatively few exemptions. Indeed, in a comprehensive world-wide RTI Rating Project undertaken by Centre for Law and Democracy based in Canada and Spain-based Access Info Europe, India is ranked 2^nd in the world scoring an impressive 130 out of 150 points and closely following Serbia which is ranked first with 135 points. United States of America and United Kingdom scored 89 points and 97 points respectively while Germany and Greece scored 54 and 40 points respectively.

However, as may be expected in a new legislation of this kind, permanently impacting on all agencies of government, there are bound to be implementation issues and problem areas, which need to be addressed.

In a large number of cases information sought to be accessed stems from a grievance against a department/agency. Experience has shown that functionaries/departments tend to be defensive rather than proactive in redressing a grievance (or even in disclosing information) particularly when it directly pertains to their conduct (or misconduct). This proclivity underlines the need for an independent forum to hear complaints into acts of omission and commission, harassment, corruption etc. which emerge either through information collected under RTI or otherwise.

According to retired Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, the biggest problem facing the RTI Act currently is the large pendency of cases at the Information Commissions which are responsible for enforcing the RTI Act. The current state of pendency of cases is such that almost all cases take many months to be resolved and most take years. At such rate, the common man will soon run away from this just as he/she has run away from most of judicial and quasi- judicial processes chiefly due to their extremely time-taking nature. Implementing a Citizens Charter in the Information Commissions can be one of the most important steps towards avoiding such degradation of the RTI Act.

The Kashmir Problem: A Psychological Perspective

Our research points out that one of the biggest problems of Kashmir that also needs urgent attention and which also is the chief cause of hatred in the valley is the problem of cruelty of security personnel. So, this is the first big problem that we propose to take up.

We will put up our research here and we will try to be as unbiased as possible in that. Barring our research, the source of information that we would use in this article will all be third party sources, that is, sources which are not part of India or Pakistan.

First, let us look at why extraordinary amount of security measures, including restriction to people and rights to security forces, were taken. According to Human rights groups and local NGOs the total number of civilian deaths due to insurgency till 2005 was 84,000 (1). Militancy had reached its peak in 1994 when the region saw more than 6,043 incidents and has since declined (1). At one time the so-called holy warriors from Afghanistan and some Arab countries joined the Pakistani militants to give the armed insurgency in Kashmir an Islamic colour (2). At least two retired Pakistan army generals who are sympathetic to the Islamic movements openly brag about the way Islamic warriors from various countries took training in Afghanistan, and later participated in what they describe as the holy war, or jihad, in Kashmir (2). An investigation in 2002 unearthed evidence that Al-Qaeda and its affiliates were prospering in Pakistan-administered Kashmir with tacit approval of Pakistan's National Intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (3).

This data shows that the situation did need some kind of extraordinary security measures. Any unbiased judge would acknowledge the impressive contribution of security forces to combat extreme militancy in the Valley.

While there is a bright side to the extraordinary security measures, there is a dark side too, namely that of human right violations. Our research showed that there is serious and widespread human rights violation by the security forces in Kashmir. Torture is routinely being carried out. It is possible that commitment of more serious crimes could well be happening on a serious scale.

Let us get to the intriguing question as to why do the security personnel, most of whom are quite committed to integrity of the nation (which is clear by the large number of security personnel sacrificing their lives in anti-militant operations and wars and from their success in reducing militancy in Kashmir to a very significant extent) commit cruel human rights violations. How do they lose the hearts that beat for their country when they are executing anti-militancy operations?

Our research shows that the answers to these intriguing questions lie in an extremely serious and bitter psychological syndrome that seems to be operating in the security personnel in Kashmir. This syndrome shows that human nature entails powerful forces that can transform ordinary people into evil perpetrators.

The syndrome was discovered in a Psychological Experiment carried out at the Stanford University in United States in 1971. The experiment is famous as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Hereafter, we will call the syndrome as Stanford Prison Syndrome.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was done to study psychological effects of being a prisoner or a prison-guard. Volunteers, who were undergraduate students, were physically and psychologically tested before being enrolled into the experiment. The selected ones were healthy, intelligent, middle-class males. They were randomly assigned roles of prison-guards and prisoners. The guards were free, within limits, to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order in the prison and to command the respect of the prisoners. They were warned, however, of the potential seriousness of their mission and of the possible dangers in the situation they were about to enter, as, of course, are real guards who voluntarily take such a dangerous job.

As the experiment progressed, the prison-guards, who were undergraduate students, started to take unexpected authoritarian measures on the prisoners, who were their peers. The situation worsened after a revolt by the prisoners on the second day itself. The guards attacked the prisoners with skin-chilling Carbon dioxide fire extinguishers, stripped the prisoners naked, confiscated their beds, put some of them into solitary confinement and generally began to harass and intimidate the prisoners. They started putting psychological pressure on the prisoners and denying them food. It is very surprising to note that the tactics that the mock guards came up with are also the tactics that real prison-guards come up with to control real prisoners.

The prisoners' rebellion also played an important role in producing greater solidarity among the guards. Now, suddenly, it was no longer just a simple simulation. Instead, the guards saw the prisoners as troublemakers who were out to get them, who might really cause them some harm. In response to this threat, the guards began stepping up their control, surveillance, and aggression. It is highly important to note here that the security personnel in Kashmir would definitely be having this feeling in its extreme. The prisoners did not cause the guards any physical harm, nor did they put any kind of severe mental pressure. Yet the guards had the feeling. In Kashmir, protesters are routinely causing physical harm and putting severe mental pressure on the security forces. It follows that this feeling would be much more intense in the security personnel in Kashmir.

With time the cruelty of these simple “healthy and intelligent” undergraduates posed as guards, increased. They started sometimes denying the toilet facility to the prisoners at their will. After 10:00 PM, the guards also forced the prisoners to urinate and defecate in buckets kept in their lock-ups. At times, the guards did not allow the prisoners to empty these buckets leading to the prison cells beginning to awfully stink resulting in severe drop in living standards. They also started regulating the number of times smoking addicts could smoke, in order to torture them further.

After a rumour of an escape attempt turned out to be false the guards escalated their levels of torture to make the prisoners pay for the extra efforts that they had to take to bust the rumoured escape attempt. They made the prisoners do repetitive, menial work like cleaning the toilet bowls with their bare hands. The guards also had prisoners do physical activities like push-ups and jumping jacks for extremely long lengths of time up to several hours each. By the end of the study, the guards had won total control of the prison, and they commanded blind obedience of each prisoner. Many guards were exhibiting sadistic tendencies in that they seemed to derive pleasure from cruelty. Even the "good" guards felt helpless to intervene, and none of the guards quit while the study was in progress. Indeed, it should be noted that no guard ever came late for his shift, called in sick, left early, or demanded extra pay for overtime work.

By the end of the study, the guards were escalating their abuse of prisoners in the middle of the night when they thought no researchers were watching and the experiment was "off". They were implementing ever more pornographic and degrading abuse of the prisoners.

More than fifty outsiders had seen the conditions of the prisoners but only one out of them protested. This also shows how the syndrome even affects people completely unrelated with the situation and they start regarding the abuse as justified. This seems to be happening in Kashmir today where even guards who think that some other guard is being over cruel still may have their minds held hostage by the Stanford Prison Syndrome and not oppose.

On the sixth day, the visitor who opposed saw prisoners being marched on a toilet run, bags over their heads, legs chained together and hands on each other's shoulders. She strongly protested and was successful in stopping the experiment that day. So, the experiment intended to go on for 14 days, was called off after only six days. Very surprisingly, most of the mock guards were upset that the study was terminated prematurely.

As a reference to the above information on the Stanford Prison Experiment, I would like to cite (4).

The results of this experiment are startling, at the very least. The experiment shows how people could lose their identity and have their identities defined by their occupations, how “ordinary”, healthy and intelligent people can readily be transformed from good to evil if they think that their occupation demands them to be evil. The experiment also shows how putting into a role which requires strictness but not clarifying the kind and extent of strictness, on the other hand giving undue freedom to the implementers of the strictness (the mistake which Government of India has done in Kashmir), could dehumanize people, instilling in them sadistic feelings and turning them into robots performing given orders and just filling up their positions without a trace of critical thinking, so important for human rights protection.

The experiment is painfully analogous to the situation in Kashmir. The straightest of the analogies have been discussed above.

People afflicted with the Stanford Prison Syndrome think what they are doing to be correct and justified. This is happening in Kashmir as is clear from the large number of Videos posted on YouTube showing the brutality of security personnel in Kashmir. The personnel conducting brutal acts do not try to avoid the camera, nor do they target the cameraman in almost all of the cases. Other cameramen are seen to freely record the videos venturing very close to the security personnel. The reason for this is clearly that the security personnel believe that their acts are justified and will not lead to any accountability even if the act is caught on camera. This is a significant evidence of their affliction with the Stanford Prison Syndrome.

The situation is getting worsened by the violent protests in Kashmir. This is leading to intensification of the Stanford Prison Syndrome with the security personnel feeling increasingly alienated from the common population and their beliefs about the need for increased brutality getting reinforced.

Security personnel in Kashmir feel that what they are doing is important for the law and order situation. They definitely do understand that they sometimes become too brutal, but their affliction with the Stanford Prison Syndrome leads them to explain themselves that no system is fool proof; if they want to have law and order in the state they will have to resort of to such strictness which may sometimes lead to innocent individuals being punished and/or guilty individuals being too severely punished. This viewpoint was also at work in the Stanford Prison with the only difference being that instead of law and order, discipline of the mock prisoners was the main aim there.

It should be pointed out here that there is need among the common population to understand that the security personnel are not doing the brutal acts intentionally. The brutal acts are just a result of a large section of them getting afflicted by the Stanford Prison Syndrome. The syndrome is coercing them to behave that way. They have simply lost their identity and see law and order as their only aim regardless of the way it is achieved. This was also the problem with the mock guards in the Stanford Prison who attempted to discipline the mock prisoners without giving probably any thought to the way that they were doing this. So, developing personal enmity with the security personnel would only lead to matters worsening by growth in the intensity and spread of the Stanford Prison Syndrome among the security personnel. It should be understood that the Stanford Prison Syndrome has not affected the security personnel at the personal level; it is a systemic problem where the syndrome has globally affected all the security personnel deployed there subtly affecting each individual and creating a big mass problem. We mean to say that each personnel has not become cruel individually, the system has become cruel as a whole. At the individual level, the personnel will agree to the brutality of the security forces in Kashmir and the need to find a way around this and express his/her inability to change the system because of his/her limited powers.

So, time has come to change the form of protests by targeting security personnel as individuals by stone pelting to giving the protest and intellectual edge by identifying and bringing to light this systemic problem of Stanford Prison Syndrome so that it could be solved at the systemic level. We pledge to join our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in this form of protests. The first step has been taken with writing of this article. The onus of taking the second step lies with you, the readers. Please take the second step by spreading the article as much as you can.

Now that we have well understood the chief cause of atrocities by the security personnel in Kashmir, let us initiate brain-storm of solutions. We propose the following solutions and open the platform for criticism and brain-storming:

1. Currently militancy in Kashmir is quite low. The situation does not demand the same treatment as it did in 1994.  We propose drastic reduction in the number of security personnel as the first step since this would break the backbone of the Stanford Prison Syndrome. The security personnel would face an altogether new psychological condition where they are in minority and cannot commit unwarranted brutal acts.
2. Drastic reduction in the freedom in execution of brutal acts of the security forces and making them accountable. We do not believe that the only way to do this is to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). A better way could be to remove the label of “disturbed area” from Kashmir so that the Act would automatically be ineffective there. The act is lethal for areas where the Stanford Prison Syndrome has set in but quite important for short term operations like riots where the strength of security forces is a big factor. Stanford Prison Syndrome does not set in, in a short time when the scale of the event is as large as involving thousands to tens of thousands of security personnel (It set in earlier at Stanford because of the small scale of the system leading to very easy co-ordinated affliction of the Stanford Prison Syndrome).
3. Psychological Counseling and if needed, medication to help the security personnel come out of the syndrome.
4. Rotation of people posted in Kashmir with those posted in other parts of India in a short time period of stay in Kashmir before the Stanford Prison Syndrome establishes its hold on the personnel’s mind.

With the above steps, we believe that majority of the problem in Kashmir would be solved.

References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Jammu_and_Kashmir
(2) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2043800.stm
(3) http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0702/p01s02-wosc.html
(4) http://www.prisonexp.org/

How to make citizens more responsible, involved and effective

The public, especially in countries like India, is frustrated with the inability of governmental institutions to adequately resolve the wide range of difficult issues facing them. The good news is that an ever-growing number of people have been demanding to be brought into the decision-making process in a meaningful way. Citizens want to be involved from beginning to the end in governance matters.

Stories of constructive citizen intervention abound in India. The latest is the Anna Hazare movement. However, no structure for such an intervention has been documented. This essay attempts to do exactly that. It will save time and effort on the part of governmental bodies wanting to involve citizens more meaningfully.

First, we should try to understand why even honest Governments fail to involve citizens to a non-negligible extent. Research has shown that the primary reason for the same is that the Governments don’t trust the judgment of its citizens. The graph below shows it very clearly.



Of course, another important reason is the widely held belief that it is the reluctance to share power that stops Governments from distributing power among its citizens.

Indeed, in the current Governance landscape in India, with numerous pressure groups and nervous bureaucracy (more so, because of vote-collecting but non-implementable laws like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), Citizen Involvement may well be seen as adding too much delay but little value.

As an example, take the case of the recent agitation for a strong Lokpal Bill. With so many different views and opinions of so many intellectuals debating 24 hours a day on public forums, the demands became a khichdi more than anything else. The issue becomes graver because of the ever-increasing vote-bank politics which makes efforts to please everyone and offend no one.

Many Problems have been unnecessarily demonized due to these issues. Some of them are…

•          Public sector debt
•          Restructuring of the economy
•          Welfare reform
•          Deterioration of Infrastructure
•          Waste-management

All these problems can be easily solved by effective community involvement. This includes…

•          Progressive politicians
•          Open and Shared Leadership
•          Progressive bureaucracy
•          Media involvement
•          Active citizen groups
•          Free flow of information
•          Co-operative (as against political) unions
•          Co-operation in the community

To ensure successful citizen participation, two things need to work…

•          Willingness of Governing bodies to involve citizens
•          Governing bodies have the skill to conduct public participation

The first issue is complicated and involves changing the political climate. In this article, we will focus on ways to enable the second one.

Literature divides the second issue into eight main segments. Let us take them one by one.

          

         Community Assessment: This is one of the most neglected features of community involvement and also one of the most important. Existing community strengths and weaknesses should be identified.

          

         Structured Government: This exerts a significant influence on the nature and extent of community involvement. Electoral system should be representative and bureaucracy should be structured with clear demarcations of authority and power.

          

         Leadership: The quality of Leaders in public life is one of the most serious problems facing India today. This can be fully solved only when the youth of our country take up politics.

          

         Independent Research: This is another huge problem in India. Citizen involvement, even when it happens, depends upon the research of the Government. Ready availability of independent research may be extremely important for some issues.

          

         Good Facilitators: Ability to facilitate public discourse is a seldom noticed but very important part of community involvement.

          

         Collaborative Decision-making: Communities should be trained in Collaborative Decision-making such as that which happens in legislatures.

          

         Problem Solving: This may seem obvious but its importance can’t be over-emphasized. The ability to actually follow a systematic and tested problem-solving approach is critical to success in any such initiative.

          

         Conflict Management: A neglected but no less important feature is management of conflicts since it would come over and over again in community involvement.

Finally, high performance isn’t the exclusive responsibility of the Government. Citizens have an important role to play in becoming better-informed and more-involved in the running of their Governments.

Good citizenship is hard work and involves much more than voting or attending an occasional public meeting.

- C. Bens

Help Remove a Seriously Offending Video from YouTube

Recently, a Video abusing Girls of IIT Kharagpur was uploaded on YouTube. The girls are feeling seriously offended as would be obvious to most people.

To the girls: I take responsibility for this most unfortunate action of my community (the IIT Kharagpur boys). I know you won't be able to forgive us but it is my duty to sincerely beg for forgiveness from you. Starting Saturday, 4th February 2011, I am going on an indefinite Fast as a penance against this evil.

To the Uploader and his supporters: Trust me dear friends, when I say that Videos like yours significantly add to ruining the atmosphere for women in India and seriously endangering their safety (which includes emotional safety). I have studied these issues closely and deeply. If not for the girls, please at least remove the Video for me. Starting Saturday, 4th February 2012, I am going on an indefinite Fast as a penance against this evil. I won't be able to survive long in this cold weather.

To the people who would call my Fast a publicity stunt for impressing girls: Try to Fast for a day and you will know that all desires for publicity or impressing people come only after the basic necessity of food is satisfied. May God bless you with wisdom to understand the true intentions of other people.

Isn't there a way other than an indefinite Fast? Since the offense is severe (to the extent of abuse), the penance to fight it has to be severe too. Furthermore, this is the only way to make the uploader and his supporters realise the seriousness of this issue.

Update: The Video has been removed by the Uploader. I sincerely thank him. Now there is no need to take the following steps

How YOU can Help?

Please go to the following webpage and fill up the form with the help of information given below and click Submit at the bottom to help remove the Video from YouTube: http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/request.py?contact_type=defamation

Provide the URL(s) of each video that is allegedly defamatory: *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlYMoWDm9Tw

Identify the user who has allegedly been involved with the defamation:
AnonymousIITKgp


Identify the statements in the video that you claim are defamatory: *
1. "Tu Gandi Achi Lagti Hai" (in Hindi)
2. "Tu Kali Si Kachhi" (in Hindi)
3. "Tu Tali Si Machhi Lagti Hai" (in Hindi)
4. "If something in this Video offends you, please bring it to our attention so that we can all laugh at you."

To expedite our ability to investigate your claim, please provide the time stamp
of where in the video the statements are made : *
Throughout the Video