In race for CIC: 2 Information Commissioners

While many - from IIM graduates to yoga guru Baba Ramdev to assorted RTI activists are throwing their weight behind former IPS officer Kiran Bedi...

While many - from IIM graduates to yoga guru Baba Ramdev to assorted RTI activists are throwing their weight behind former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as the next Chief Information Commissioner,two men at the Central Information Commission are watching the developments with keen interest,hoping the government abides by the long-standing convention of selecting the next-in-line this time. While one is an economist and an education specialist,popularly known as the professor,the other is a former civil servant who helped draft the four-year-old Right to Information Act,2005.

Professor M M Ansari and A N Tiwari are the senior-most information commissioners though Ansari says he precedes his colleague by two to three months and of course the two top contenders for the top post,to be vacated by Wajahat Habibullah on November 8.

Busy in their August Kranti Bhavan offices on Tuesday in what may be a few hours left before the government decides who will be the next chief,Ansari says he is the senior most of all the information commissioners and hopes that the government abides by the long-standing conventions of selecting the next-in-line.

My friend Tiwari was at the time in DoPT. It took him two or three months to get all the paperwork done from DoPT and join the Information Commission, he says. The government will decide very soon,tonight or tomorrow.

With a year more to go at the Commission,Ansari says he never talks about these things but has made an exception this time. Tiwari is a friend of mine. I will be only happy to work as an information commissioner with him as chief, says the professor,dressed in blue formals and dark pants.

You see,none of the information commissioners are subordinate to the Chief Information Commissioner. We all report directly to the President. One among us is just named chief,thats all. The chief takes care of administrative matters and meets us if we have anything to discuss, says Ansari.

The professor stresses that none from the Central Information Commission has put in a word with the government on who should be the next chief. That will amount to putting pressure on the government. We cannot do such things, he says. The government has followed the convention in other organisations like the Election Commission and the UPSC. Lets see whether it follows the same with the Central Information Commission.

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Tiwari says he knows no other life than that of a public servant. However,he adds that it is better to leave the issue to the wisdom of the government. The government luckily does not listen to street talk, he says,in apparent criticism of media reports about his performance at the Commission.

I do not think about it on who will be the next chief. My life has trained me to take it as it comes, says Tiwari.

Both men share the grouse that their performance has been unfairly criticised. It is very easy to criticise us. We were there at the beginning of the RTI, says Ansari.

In our country nothing is sacrosanct, Tiwari echoes.