HOT TOPICS
SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
Right to response in English
Written By murali772 - 17 May, 2010
Bangalore governance Transparency Analysis efficiency liberalisation inclusiveness
From over a year now, the responses from GoK officials to queries under RTI, are being made out only in Kannada, even when raised in English, and even when specifically requested to respond in English.
Now, though I can speak Kannada fairly fluently; I can't read or write the language (Questions as to why people like me haven't bothered to learn to read and write the language can be the subject of another blog; but, please do not bring it up here). However, even true-blue Kannadiga's, to whom I have been referring these official responses, have been having difficulty figuring out the specific nuances pertaining to the issues involved.
As such, I feel this is a strategy being adopted by the babu's largely to obfuscate and prevaricate on issues. And, it is certainly having its effects - like from over a year, I have not filed a single query, though I used to be quite a regular before.
In the light of all these, on the 1st of this year, I filed a query as under:
"Is a Karnataka state government official, irrespective of whichever office he/ she is attached to, bound by law to accord a response in English language, if a person raising a query with him/ her, under Right to Information Act, asks for the same?"
with both
1) The Additional Secretary, Opinion Division, Dept of Law, Ministry for Law & Parliamentary Affairs
2) Deputy Secretary (Establishment of Joint Secretary), Dept of Personnel & Administrative Reforms
Whereas, I was looking for a yes/ no response, what I have received (apparently from the person listed at sl no 2 above) turned out to be another attempt at obfuscation, stating that the Act does not make any reference to the matter.
I then represented to the Appellate authority stating additionally as below:
"My query was not limited to responses under the Right to Information Act. However, since there is no obligation to respond when a query is raised other than under the Act, I had specifically referred to queries raised under the Act. As such, the officials citing rules to under the Act to evade a direct answer was quite untenable".
But, with that also not evoking the right kind of response, I have now taken the matter to the Information Commissioner (on 16th April). I am yet to hear from his office, apart from the postal acknowledgement.
Meanwhile, the Dept of Law has been silent. I now propose to bring that also to the notice of the Information Commissioner. I am told it takes a bit of time.
If the answer had been NO, they would have said so straightaway. Very clearly therefore the answer has to be a YES. And, once I get that, I shall certainly put it to good use.
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
kbsyed61 - 21 December, 2010 - 13:49
Murali Sir,
Did you get the summons at all? Howdo you plan to know the date of your hearing in another appeal? Is there system or MAMOOL to know it?
-Syed
murali772 - 22 December, 2010 - 05:17
@ Bheema - Please understand correctly what I am asking. Nowhere have I asked for discontinuation of the promotion of Kannada. All I am asking for is a response in English, which presumably is an official language of the state, and over which I have better mastery than Kannada. That I believe is my right. Now, if the government of a country like Switzerland provides you the choice of corresponding in four different languages, as also its official documentation made out in all four of them, why can't the GoK have it in English atleast? On the other hand, if the GoK is going to be labelling English as a foreign language, and is eventually planning to phase it out of official usage, let them declare so. Let's see if it has the support of the people.
I have a working knowledge of Kannada, like I expect the majority of people in Benagaluru, including the many sons of soil. In this globalised world, I for one would like to gain greater mastery of the English language in order to acquire more knowledge on all matters that interest me from across the world, than be limited by the mastery of just Kannada. As such, I have no intention of polishing up my knowledge of Kannada much beyond the present level, which is good enough even to follow the odd Kannada movie, that I see.
All the same, I shall fully support all pursuits towards promotion of Kannada, and the local culture through that. And, not just Kannada, but even Tulu, Konkani, Coorgi, these being the other mother tongues of sizable sections of Bangaloreans/ Kannadiga's.
What is happening currently is the blatant mis-use of Kannada by government officials to deny information through obfuscation. We ourselves are the victims of this, with the office of the RoS sending us around in circles, while attempting to register as a society, since even a 'Kuvempu' will not be able to manage the language technicalities they are invoking.
The language issue has been discussed in greater detail here, as also elsewhere. In this thread, let's confine ourselves to the right I am seeking to establish.
Bheema.Upadhyaya - 22 December, 2010 - 05:56
That gives a greater picture of your demand, much clearly now. Very logical too.
We should follow good example like Singapore, Switzerland. Not bad example like Frankfurt, Germany, where I had literally stuck up due to language issue. I was supposed to register locally for a work permit. All the forms where ONLY in german, where I faced similar situation like you. But someone helped me to get a verbal translator, I was saved.
idontspam - 22 December, 2010 - 06:56
We should follow good example like Singapore, Switzerland. Not bad example like Frankfurt, Germany
Very very well put. I had the same bad experience in Sweden. Even today I get official letters mailed to me in Swedish which I have to jump thru hoops to get translated (made even harder without Swedish keyboard). Parts of conservative Europe which have the advantage of being monolingual, are living in a different era are definitely not inclusive. They set a very bad example for the future, and in a multilingual country like India this will kill us in the long run.
Bheema.Upadhyaya - 22 December, 2010 - 03:51
The best would be to ask in both languages in Kannada and English. Also you may ask Kannada and Hindi combination. Does the language really matter than issue itself? Its easy to get it translated, than asking GoK itself to do this extra job(we know GoK is implementing Kannada in hard way, though people/private companies are not implementing. See any ads in City, where Kannada letters are in 5% size of main ad font size) Thats my personal opinion , no offense meant though.
PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES
Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!