I bring you greetings from India, the world's largest democracy.
I am humbled to be a part of such a distinguished gathering, and am mindful of all the very accomplished people who are part of the family of Magsaysay awardees. Ordinarily, my own credentials would not stand up to the scrutiny of this group, but I take heart from the fact that I stand here today not on my achievements but as a representative of the movement for the people's right to information, that is thriving and growing in India. This award does not belong to me. It belongs to the entire Right-to-Information movement in India. It belongs to every individual who has fought for transparency in governance. Some of them even faced violence and risked their lives. I stand before you today on behalf of all of them.
Enactment of the Right to Information law has ushered in a new era in Indian democracy. In a democracy, people are the masters and the governments exist to serve them. But the situation is reverse in practice. Right to Information has tilted the balance of power in favor of ordinary people.
Starting from a small village in the state of Rajasthan, this movement to empower the common people and make them the real masters in a democratic polity, is now sweeping the country. It is catching the imagination of people in the rural and the urban areas, of the poor and the rich, of the educated and the illiterate, and of the privileged and the oppressed. They all see it as a new awakening, a fresh way of solving the problems of poverty, of hunger, and of disease which have plagued our country, and many other countries of the world, for hundreds of years. They are joined together, for they see this not as a battle between the government and the people, but as a historic battle where good people within and outside the government join hands to battle the corrupt and the apathetic.
It is a fight for justice, for surely "when people go hungry, it is not food, but justice, that is in short supply". It is this movement for the right to information that has, in a short span of a few years, challenged the very basis of bureaucratic patronage and corruption that has plagued our society for centuries. The right to information has been widely understood—in cities, towns and villages, by housewives and shopkeepers, by executives and students, by workers and labourers—as our right to demand accountability from the government: you spend OUR money, you give US OUR accounts. And YOU are paid from OUR money, so YOU answer to US.
Right to Information has emerged as an extremely powerful tool in the hands of ordinary people to fight injustice and corruption. It has given voice to the voiceless. Nannu, a very poor labourer, got his food card without bribes within a few days when he used Right to Information. He was harassed for three months before that. Triveni, another poor woman living in a slum in Delhi, started getting her subsidized food from the government after she used Right to Information. Her food was being siphoned off before that. Right to Information has brought hope to all such people. It has given them the strength to be able to fight injustice.
Prem Sharma, who is 74 years old, got his passport the day he went to file his RTI application, though it had been denied to him for six months, because he refused to pay bribes. Use of RTI led to roads being made and repaired only for the first time on the ground, though for years they were being made and repaired on paper. It has led to honest officers being protected and the corrupt ones being prosecuted. But, most important of all, it has led the people of India to feel empowered—perhaps for the first time in their long and colourful history—empowered to stand up and demand answers of the government. It has energized the nation and, even as we speak, this energy is spreading like wildfire across the cities, towns and villages of India. It is this movement for the right to information, that I represent as I stand here. It is on behalf of these thousands of people across India, and my immediate associates in Parivartan, that I accept, with great humility, the award that you confer on me today. As a great statesman once famously said: "They are the lions, I only have the privilege to be called upon to roar for them".