RBI, SEBI, NHRC and now the RTI. All the autonomous bodies that defined the strength of Indian democracy are now shackled. The common man would be now mute and cannot do anything but stay put and tolerate whatever comes his way.
There are many other autonomous bodies that might be undergoing the same fate presently, but either it is too subtle for us to notice now, or it hasn't reached the media presently.
The Right to Information Act (RTI)- No one deny the immense importance of RTI in tackling the government and highlighting its flaws. The incharge of RTI at the national level is the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) whose tenure is fixed at 5yrs and his salary and allowances are fixed in the law and can't be changed once he is elected. He has the post comparable to a judge of the Supreme Court.
Similar is the case for State Information Commissioners whose tenure and salaries are fixed.
Now, the govt. has amended the RTI Act, saying that "the salaries and tenure of CIC and SICs would be decided by the government as to what they think best".
This would mean hand twisting of these officials if they bring the government to poor light, otherwise they would be transferred, removed or their salaries cut down. So they would either skip the said file or just dispose of with it.
RBI- The reserve Bank of India. It regulates the monetary policy effectively, maintains dollar-rupee conversion, inflation and what not. For these purposes, it requires funds due to the unpredictability of the market. The government pressurising it to share its stored reserves with the centre is appalling, and that too under threat of application of Sec 7 of the RBI act (never been used in history before) to get control of RBI and take it forcefully if not by peace. Seeing this, the then RBI governor, Urjit Patel resigned and a new (seemingly government's) governor has been appointed. The recent resignation of the dynamic deputy governor Viral Acharya, a staunch supporter of funds being with the RBI, has resigned too, leading to a dark future.
SEBI- The Securities and Exchange Board of India, which manages the stock market and other such financial instruments, has been told to part away with 75% of its profits, thus hampering its financial autonomy. It has to take the permission of the government for any major capital decision hence taking away this power too.
NHRC- The National Human Rights Commission - It has been a very instrumental body in bringing out the atrocities committed on people by the government or otherwise. The head is a retired CJI, but now the government has announced that any retired Supreme Court judge can become the head of NHRC. This gives a lot of leverage ground to the government and a myriad of chances to manipulate because there are many judges and the one who listens to them most could be elected.
This is a dark time for Indian democracy, we should all rally and support the instruments which guarantee our democracy. Democracy isn't only about fair and free elections, it's about the instruments that uphold this divine principle. Stop sharing your data to international companies by using FaceApp and rather strive to make these institutions transparent and our government accountable.
