60 years of Constitution worth celebration?

Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens.
Passed by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, it came into effect on January 26, 1950. The date 26 January was chosen to commemorate the declaration of independence of 1930. It declares the Union of India to be a sovereign, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty and to promote among them all fraternity; the words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" and to promote among them all "Fraternity"; were added to the definition in 1976 by constitutional amendment.India celebrates the adoption of the constitution on January 26 each year as Republic Day!!

Oh wow! Two major days that changed the history of India, are now merely holidays but not holy-days! These two days ( i don't need to name them if you are an Indian) we find people with the thiranga pinned on the pocket just above heart! You find TV anchor's donning outskirts painted in tri-colors, thiranga pops up as display pictures in orkut, facebook and other social networking sites. Songs are being sung,awards are given ( not the padma-bhushan and padma-vibhushan) everyone wishes it (the most famous actors, actresses, sports stars....)! but why? Are people celebrating the liberty, freedom of the politicians? Is it truly from one's hearts or is it being commercialized even?




The constitution talks on the key words that form basic pillars of the Diversified nation. I take upon a few points

Justice:
Well justice to me is a court be it high court or a supreme court. Now how many times did you people hear that justice was done in our courts? great! it's done here! for eg: The Supreme Court performed an unprecedented action when it directed a sitting Minister of the state of Maharashtra, Swaroop Singh Naik to be jailed for 1 month on a charge of contempt of court on May 12 2006. This was the first time that a serving Minister was ever jailed. So justice is being done but how long did it took?!
I am not big enough to question the judicial system of India but the only point i want to make on the eve of Sixty years of constitution is the credulity of the system. Are people willingly going to courts for justice? The time factor, ain't it a major thing? No offense!

Equality:
Equality is the equality under law! Is this happening? i stated one minister being jailed above, but what is the state of Rathore (the accused in the case of Ruchika)?
i would like to mention it took Eighteen long years for the court to decide on the matter!Is that equality and wow justice? God knows!

Liberty:
Freedom and liberty go in hand in hand! I am not pointing fingers against anything but isn't Indian media in a phenomenon of over-utilization of liberty? When Sachin Tendulkar the batting maestro spoke up BEING AN INDIAN FIRST he was criticized! Is this a liberty?

What's our achievement: I' am not being pessimistic, neither am i over reacting; it's just a general perception of mine which i feel is aptly true full! Sixty years passed since the constitution was made, what have we achieved and what the heck are we celebrating for? I list out a few
-> Govt. and private ltd. companies never nodded to research in India.
-> A Nobel prize winner (last year) is now being awarded a padma-vibhushan for his achievements as he is an Indian! His ( he was one of the team) inventions were under the foreign sophisticated equipment but not Indian. Isn't it a disgrace for the Indian big-wigs? Why don't India invest in research? A survey states that 30% researchers around the world are Indians!
-> We have automobile companies which are Indian but is everything Indian? We don't even manufacture a simple Integrated Chip, it's been imported from china (mostly). Are we so short of money that a fab(fabrication) laboratory can't be set up? :O
I don't expect things to change through this post, I just wanted to know that even gen'Y bothers for India! Celebration is for a cause, let's hope the cause is achieved and later we celebrate it! Lets hope!!
(Before Celebrating Deepavali Kill RAVANA :) )




JAI HIND! JAI INDIA! JAI HIND!

RTI act

Info is a blog dedicated to present info(information) on various fields. I start with the Right to Information Act (India).
Right to Information Act which came into existence in 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information. It is an initiative taken by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions to provide a– RTI Portal Gateway to the citizens for quick search of information on the details of first Appellate Authorities,PIOs etc. amongst others, besides access to RTI related information / disclosures published on the web by various Public Authorities under the government of India as well as the State Governments.
History :

Disclosure of Government Information in India is governed by a law enacted during the British rule over large parts of what is now India, the Official Secrets Act of 1889 which was amended in 1923. This law secures information related to security of the State, sovereignty of the country and friendly relations with foreign states, and contains provisions which prohibit disclosure of non-classified information. Civil Service conduct rules and the Indian Evidence Act impose further restrictions on government officials' powers to disclose information to the public.

Scope of RTI:

The Act covers the whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir. It is applicable to all constitutional authorities, including the executive, legislature and judiciary; any institution or body established or constituted by an act of Parliament or a state legislature. It is also defined in the Act that bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification of appropriate government including bodies "owned, controlled or substantially financed" by government, or non-Government organizations "substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds" provided by the government are also covered in it.

Private bodies are not within the Act's ambit directly. However, information that can be accessed under any other law in force by a public authority can also be requested for. In a landmark decision of 30-Nov-2006 ('Sarbajit Roy versus DERC') the Central Information Commission also reaffirmed that privatised public utility companies continue to be within the RTI Act- their privatisation notwithstanding. The Act also explicitly overrides the Official Secrets Act and other laws in force on 15-June-2005 to the extent of any inconsistency.

Idea behind RTI:

Whereas the Constitution of India has established democratic Republic;
And whereas democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed; whereas revelation of information in actual practice is likely to conflict with other public interests including efficient operations of the Governments, optimum use of limited fiscal resources and the preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information;

And whereas it is necessary to harmonise these conflicting interests while preserving the paramountcy of the democratic ideal; Now, therefore, it is expedient to provide for furnishing certain information to citizens who desire to have it.

note: the above is the one exactly stated by govt.
Source: Wikipedia
Further info: http://rti.gov.in/webactrti.htm