Who cares for RTI? A reply from HAL to 56 queries posed by the blogger.
With the Media Department of HAL in Bangalore and Delhi HAL put to a silent death by Ashok Nayak & Co in November 2009, the blogger wrote to HAL on 08 December 2009 seeking details on various issues in the form of 56 questions, using the RTI Act. However, the blogger got a reply from HAL on 01 January 2010 from RTI Cell that the queries were too voluminous and hence it's rejected. (See the reply above.) Though, the letter gave me an option to appeal as per the Act, I chose not to knowing that it will be absolute waste of time. On a different note, I am glad that my fellow blogger and Headlines Today journalist Shiv Aroor too has joined my mission in a constructive campaign to challenge HAL's attitude towards the Media, through his blog Livefist. (Shiv's campaign on DRDO couple of years back in Indian Express, was one of the reasons for the government to appoint the Rama Rao Committee which looked into issues that plagued DRDO.) I happened to read some comments posted on Livefist and was surprised to see that some HAL guys are fighting it out over issues, which are dead and gone. The campaign that I have launched is not against one individual, but against a system that has so far successfully managed to put the Media in the dark.
Don't miss my next couple of posts, as I am keen to take this campaign to its logical end, till HAL puts in place a proper mechanism for Media. As a defense journalist, I am committed towards exposing the current system in HAL, that cares too little for the needs of the Media. At the same time, if there are positive developments on the project front in HAL, I will be the first to report it with all its purity and not diluting my professional ethics.
If you have integrity nothing else matters, if you don't have integrity nothing else matters.
