On 13 February 2014, Ajay Dubey, a Right to Information (RTI) activist based in Bhopal, filed an RTI regarding the appointment of government advocates in Madhya Pradesh (MP). Well-versed with the condition of RTI applications in the state, Dubey did not expect to get a reply from the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Law and Legislative Affairs department of MP. “The government’s attitude is lacklustre when it comes to disseminating information under the RTI Act,” he told me during a conversation over the phone on 24 June 2015, last Wednesday.
However, contrary to Dubey’s expectations, the department did deign to send him a reply on 10 June 2015, more than a year after he had filed the application. The response shed light on the appointment of Swaraj Kaushal, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s husband, and Bansuri Kaushal, their daughter, as advocates for the government of MP. These appointments, Dubey alleged, were a result of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s desire to consolidate his position within the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Under the provisions of the RTI Act—which mandates that any information sought under the RTI should be provided within 30 days—the 16 months that the state took to process this query would probably qualify as unduly long. But when you consider the abysmal state of the RTI act in MP, 16 months is barely anything.
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