Naked among Wolves

This is a mail from change.org which I feel we all should sign.

Dear Tapas,

My brother was killed for exposing corruption.

He was threatened, but he didn’t withdraw his complaint. The next day 8 men broke into his house and murdered him.

Tapas, my brother was a common citizen trying to fight a case of corruption in his village. He paid for it with his life.

Many people like my brother now use the RTI act to fight corruption in municipal corporations, local government bodies etc.

I was shocked to hear that the RTI rules are being changed. Under the new rules an RTI query can be withdrawn by the applicant and the RTI query will be closed if the applicant dies.

This means that people can be threatened into withdrawing their queries. And if they don't give in to threats they will be killed.

Tapas, sign this petition and tell the Government to scrap these new rules.

Why should an RTI query be closed after the applicant’s death? The government must instead make sure that the information is immediately disclosed.

If someone is threatened the Government must provide them protection instead of letting them withdraw their query.

The new rules put the lives of common citizens fighting corruption in grave danger. I lost my brother but I want to make sure that other anti-corruption activists are protected.

The RTI Act needs to stay strong. Sign this petition and show the Government that lakhs of people are watching them and don’t want these new rules.

Thank you for your support,

Khokham Singh