Right to information : Law and practice

Right to information is basic to any democracy. A vibrant citizenry is a pre req uisite for survival of democratic society and governance. It is not possible to have a rightful expression as a right without the right to information as basis to freedom of speech. The quality of life in a civilized society depends upon the quality of exchange of information about governance and other related aspects. The struggle between human rights and Government by secrecy should go on for ever. A citizen cannot afford to reconcile to the strong trend that govern ment might run only on secrecy and human rights is only a dream. It is not possible for any democratic Government to survive without accountability, which can be realized only when the people have information about the functioning of the Government. The whole effort must be to make democracy a really effective participatory democracy. The representative rulers should allow the real sov ereigns, i.e., the people to decide, and the people have to decide or take part in every decision making process.