Best news in a long long while

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

Are we really beginning to change? Are we going to own our country at
last?

I really, really like it. One by one, the policies being strongly
recommended by IPI are coming into shape in public life. It is clear
that the time is ripe for India to change. We are NOT creating that
change. But it is a good thing that we are beginning to talk as a nation
on the same wavelength. We have a great future if only we talk to one
another.

NEWS ITEM:

Official Secrets Act will be scrapped: Advani 

Advani said the country was heading for an era of "transparency and
freedom of information."

Comment: I think that once this draconian and antedeluvian act is
scrapped, it will and should give more power to all kinds of
whistleblowers inside government. Already, my reading of the law is that
it protects official secrets and NOT personal secrets: i.e., when my CM
asks me to help him break rules for his personal gain, I am entitled to
disclose that to the public to help them decide whether they want that
CM or not. Not many people have ever used this interpretation. Not even
me. It struck me only about 2 years ago. 

However, once the act is completely scrapped, we will finally be able to
SEE inside government and to see the actual incentives and behavior of
our bureaucrats and politicians. That is critical. In an age when
Clinton's security guards are not barred from testifying against
Clinton, we cannot have a system where our Ministers and top civil
servants build mansions and live like kings on salaries of $100 per
month. The misuse of the powers of the Official Secrets Act has gone too
far. Those who do not like this MUST be fully protected when they
disclose the detailed information about the while collar crimes taking
place on a day to day basis inside government.

That is not enough, of course. We must change policy drastically on many
fronts. But this is perhaps the best news I've heard in years.

Sanjeev


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a posting to India_Policy Discussion list:  debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives:            http://www.indiapolicy.org/debate/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------