India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force on October 12, 2005. It is one of the strongest transparency laws in the world. It essentially says that if any information cannot be denied to a lawmaker, i.e., a Member of Parliament or state legislature, then it cannot be denied to any citizen of India.

It empowers citizens to be on par with the so-called rulers, who are in essence people’s representatives. It has transformed governance in India. For the first time, citizens had a legally enforceable right to ask questions of the state and expect answers.

It empowered citizens across class, caste, and region to hold government agencies accountable. No longer was the citizen a passive recipient of state authority, and the state was accountable to the citizen.

The RTI was the culmination of nearly two decades of a citizen-led grassroots movement for accountability. The movement started with the simple premise that citizens have a right to say, “It is our money, so we want to know how it is spent” (humaara paisa, humaara hisaab). The RTI gives the citizen a right to ask questions and obliges the state to answer them. It has helped transform governance in India.

Over the last two decades, the RTI has exposed corruption, improved delivery of welfare benefits, and enabled public scrutiny over electoral finance, public procurement, pensions, ration systems, and infrastructure spending. It has empowered ordinary citizens to challenge opacity in local administration. For many, it became their only shield against arbitrary power. It has helped tackle delay or malfeasance in simple things like impediments in........

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