Another achievement that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and UPA government (I) must rightfully be proud of is introduction of Right to Information Law better known as RTI Act. It allows a commonman legal access to the records of the Central Government and those of states. Under the provisions of this act, any citizen may request information from a public authority on any official matter from the centre or state bodies or departments. The concerned official of the department or body shall answer and provide the requested information under this act within 30 days or he/she will face punishment or a heavy monetary fine.
In the original bill it was envisaged that a citizen will have access to whole document. But then officials objected that if notings on the documents were made public the officials will be targeted for retaliation by physical abuse, vendetta, revenge act or litigation by aggrieved parties. There was some merit in the plea. Hence, notings or official comments on the documents were put out of the purview of this act. So, were the documents related to official secrets or sensitive matters and those regarding the security matters.
This act gave the citizens a powerful instrument to bring to light the bureaucratic muddles, bunglings, callous attitude, down right injustices, dishonest acts, corruption, insensitivities, incompetence, harassment of citizens and deliberate delays or red tapism.
The Act specifics that citizens have rights to :
- Request any information
- Take copies of documents
- Inspect documents, works and records
- Take certified samples of materials of work
- Obtain information in the form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes etc.
Under this Act there were a spate of applications seeking various kinds of information. As the officials were bound to reply within a stipulated period several bunglings and cases of corruption came to light. Many wrongs were quickly set right and the citizens got justice. It indeed proved to be a very valuable act the people of India would ever remain thankful to Sonia Gandhi and her chosen man’s government.
For failing to reply many officials have been punished or fined. The officials are crying foul and trying to get punishment and penalty part of the Act removed through an amendment. Let us hope the government does not yield otherwise this Act will become toothless and yet another act of noble attempt will lose its way in the bureaucratic maze.
The office of the RTI Commissioner needs to be strengthened and empowered. A person of integrity and action must serve as RTI Commissioner with adequate staff and regional branches to make RTI Act really meaningful. In this matter the government appears to be dragging its feet. The people would be really thankful to Sonia Gandhi if she pushes her chosen man a bit and gets the RTI Commission and its office as powerful as Election Commission.
Sonia Gandhi at UN meet
In 2005 UNO decided to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday (2nd October) as International Day of Non-violence. UPA chairperson and Congress president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi was specially invited to speak at the 192 member General Assembly of UN.
Sonia Gandhi went to the meet accompanied by her son, Rahul, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and his deputy Anand Sharma.
In her speech to the assembly Sonia Gandhi said—”It is not the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi that is in question today, it is whether we have the courage to emulate his preachings and what he lived and died for. The world today is facing violence of various kinds. The international community collectively failed to tackle terrorism and check nuclear proliferation.
…Fallacies about non-violence are abound. It is no sign of weakness or cowardice. Nothing is further from the truth. Non-violence goes beyond passive resistance or civil disobedience.
To practise it in true spirit demands strict discipline of mind, the courage to face aggression, moral conviction to stay the course and the strength to do so without harbouring any malice towards the opponent.
….At the heart of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence was his belief that strength comes from righteousness, not force, power comes from truth, not might, victory comes from moral courage, not imposed submission….
…He held that means and ends were inseparable and that in fact the means themselves shape the ends. History, both past and contemporary, confirms that violence only begets violence in an unending spiral fostering hatred and revenge. Violence seeks to impose and overwhelm, which is why its victories are transitory. Non-violence seeks to engage and persuade, which is why its results are far enduring…”
Sonia Gandhi delivered a very erudite speech that was heard by the packed assembly in rapt attnption. At the end of her speech there was a thunderous applause. Many leaders rushed to shake hands with Sonia Gandhi, now a true international figure.
Farm loan waiver a Sonia Gandhi-Rahul gift to farmers
2007 had been a bad year for farmers. Several regions suffered drought conditions or excessive rains. To make matters worse agriculture had suddenly become unviable proposition. Agricultural inputs had become very costly. Seed and fertilizer prices had shot up. The farm produce was not getting any compensatory returns. The farmers especially the small and marginal were in dire state. The loans they had taken could not be repaid. The loan sharks and banks were after the hapless indebted farmers. The situation had become so grim that the farmers were committing suicides in large numbers to the shock of the countrymen. The newspaper and T.V. channels were full of reports of such deaths or the suicides. The conscience of the nation was biting hard as the sons of the land were dying in distress.
The opposition parties were merrily fishing in the troubled waters alleging that the policies of Manmohan Singh government were the cause of sorry state of the farming sector. Several parties had announced to launch nationwide movement for the farmers and corner the UPA government laying all blame at its door. The government appeared to be clueless.
But behind the scene Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others were working hard to retrieve the situation. The distress of the farmers was troubling them and hurting their conscience as well. They could not let the farmers down. For farmers a genuine sympathy they had because the farmers were their rural supporters and voters. With them the fate of UPA was tied. Sonia Gandhi would fondly remember how rural folk had accepted her as their esteemed bahu when she had gone there with Rajiv Gandhi first time. Her son Rahul felt the pain of the farmers so deeply that he went to spend a time in Vidarbha with the widow of a farmer who had committed suicide to share her sorrow and learn about grassroot situation. While the opposition was airing empty words of sympathy for the farmers, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul were urging Prime Minister and the finance minister to address the problems of the distressed farmers.
What came as a result of this exercise took the wind out of the sails of the opposition.
In 2008 budget sesison, the finance minister P. Chidambaram announced a whopping 60,000 crore relief for farmers. It really stunned the opposition and made them squirrm as Sonia Gandhi and Rahul smiled.
The loan waiver scheme would benefit 4 crore farmers, another historic act of UPA. No government had ever before dared to provide direct cash relief to the distressed farmers of this magnitude.
The UPA government had the resources to provide relief to the farmers without imposing any additional burden on the tax payers. After all under the dynamic and efficient leadership of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh the national economy had grown at a sustained rate of more than 9% per annum. Rahul Gandhi, in his intervention in the Lok Sabha made two pertinent points regarding the loan waiver scheme. As the prevailing ceiling of 2 hectares for eligible farmers did not account for the land productivity and excluded deserving farmers in poorly irrigated areas, especially the dry land areas of Vidarbha. He suggested that the land ceiling be based upon productivity for the loan waiver relief. Taking into consideration the cropping cycles, Rahul Gandhi also suggested that the localized cut off dates be considered to benefit maximum number of farmers.
According to his suggestions the loan waiver schemes was made more inclusive in amended form. Farm loan waiver was now worth 72,000 crores in favour of the farming community with the salient features as under :
- Full loan waiver for small and marginal farmers.
- Waiver will cover short term crop loans as well as all the overdue instalments on the investment credit.
- For short term production loans the amount disbursed upto March 31, 2007 and overdue as on December 31, 2007 and remaining unpaid until February 28, 2008 were eligible.
- For investment loans, related instalments overdue including interests eligible for all loans disbursed upto March 31, 2007 and overdue as on December 31, 2007 and remaining unpaid till February 28, 2008.
- Marginal farmer defined as cultivating agricultural land upto 1 hectare or 2.5 hectares.
- Small farmer is one who is cultivating land between 2 hectares, but less that 5 acres. (Small and marginal farmers account of 70-94 percent of total farming communities in states).
- Other farmers owning more than 5 acres or 2 hectares will get one time settlement (OTS) relief.
- Bulk of dry and unirrigated lands falling in DRAP (Drought Prone Area Programme) and DDP (Desert Development Programme) make about 237 districts. Special package for farmers in these districts.
- For other farmers in these 237 districts OTS relief will be 25% or Rs. 20,000 whichever is higher. It was a big relief for other farmers as well. Suppose a farmer’s overdue was Rs. 20,000 under original package he would have had Rs. 5000, now the farmer got Rs. 20,000 written off. A farmer having outstanding of Rs. 60,000 under earlier package now got Rs. 20,000 written off.
- On an average, the larger farmer, holding more than 5 acres, in these districts had a short term crop loan of about Rs. 19,908 and the average size Rs. 13,324. About 60-65 percent farmers of those 237 districts get full debt waiver (not 25% relief).
The guideline to the above effect in respect of 2008 Farmer Loan Waiver were duly issued.
It was an unprecedented scale of relief the farmers of India got. Thanks to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and UPA team. They had worked out yet another winner and redeemer.