Silence can at times be deafening – as when Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman demonstrated when a sensational disclosure in the form of an RTI reply said a huge chunk of Rs 500 currency notes printed by presses in India between April 2015 and December 2016 were “missing” – or that these notes sent by the press had not reached RBI as per records. RBI came up with a clarification on Saturday, after a pause, saying that there was no such miss – and that the RTI reply was based on an “erroneous interpretation.” A report based on an RTI reply has, prima facie, an authenticity to it. A simple press release from the RBI by way of a denial or clarification is fine, but it should have been the duty of the Finance Minister herself to open her mouth, deny it and settle the nation’s concern for once and for all.
It’s quite possible that there was a gap in the way the information was collected or released by way of an RTI reply. Likely, there were inconsistencies. But, a specific RTI query would not normally arise from a blank space. The rights activist might have got wind of some murmurs somewhere in the system. Transparency is not a virtue with the governance system here. Silence is a weapon often to cover up matters or to hide one’s guilt. Once an issue hogs the headlines for a few days, it meets with a natural death. Those who committed errors get away with their act.
At a time when systems are weakening and those running the governments are mostly engaged in fire-fighting to ward off issues of the day, long-term interests of the nation might suffer. Those in governments sit through their chairs for a maximum of five years and another set would step in and wield power for the next term. During the first term of Narendra Modi as PM, the Finance Minister fell ill and there was also a time when Arun Jaitley handled Defence and Finance together. RBI itself went through a tumult as Raghuram Rajan left without an extension of his term, Urjit Patel took charge until 2018 and he was replaced by the present incumbent Shaktikanta Das. Even granted that the RTI reply and the interpretations thereof were erroneous and it is safe to assume that the necessary checks and balances are in place, closer scrutiny is advised. This should be done not just by those in authority but also by the principal opposition, the Congress, that has in its ranks a seasoned FM like P Chidambaram in Parliament. The nation needs reassurance that all is well.