‘Jashn-e-Samvidhan,’ held in Beawar, marked 75 years of India’s Constitution, bringing together diverse voices to honour democracy and the RTI, and laying the foundation for a people’s museum, dedicated to RTI
October usually heralds the famed festive season of India with celebrations around a particular religion or familial relationships taking centre stage. However, in October 2024, the city of Beawar in Rajasthan witnessed something else — a more inclusive festival that celebrated each citizen of India irrespective of their personal, religious or caste identity. The event, aptly titled ‘Jashn-e-Samvidhan,’ marked the beginning of the creation of the RTI Museum in a city where it all began. The proposed janta ka (people’s) museum, in an aim to strengthen democracy, will work as a resource centre for developing an understanding of rights-based movements and serve as an archive for the relevant documents, materials, and film footage.
The format of the event was also patterned on the Constitution it celebrated. As the country marks 75 years of the adoption of the Constitution, the event reaffirmed the faith in constitutional values. The two-day ‘Jashn-e-Samvidhan’, organised by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and Loktantrashala, through dialogues, discussions, sessions, slogans, and songs, brought together over 1,000 people across various walks of life — judges, lawyers, activists, journalists, bureaucrats, educators, artists, students, and the people of Beawar who heralded the movement for the RTI.
Democracy in the medium, and the message
In solidarity with fraternity and secularism, religious leaders of multiple faiths inaugurated the event with an interfaith prayer service where each religious leader insisted that being human is one’s first identity and that no religion propagates hatred. “Today, about 80 lakh people use it in a year, out of which 80% are the poor,” social activist Aruna Roy shared, highlighting the contribution of the Right to Information in creating transparency and accountability for the underprivileged. She also explained why people from all over the country congregated in Beawar: “The RTI movement that started from the land of Beawar spread across the country and was given a legal form.”
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People working for change across various fields participated in the first session of the event, including Anil Verma from the Association for Democratic Reforms, Dalit rights activist Satish Kumar, Lal Singh from the School for Democracy, and journalists Ramprasad Kumawat and Bhasha Singh. Parallel workshops followed the session covering topical issues. Each session was less unilateral and more a dialogue — ensuring democracy in both the medium and the message. The themes were RTI, digital data protection law, social audit, forms of media and challenges to democracy, land and forest rights, free and fair elections, unemployment crisis, digital exclusion in NREGA, ration and pension, civil liberties, protection of RTI activists and complainants, the marginalised and discrimination, culture and democracy, and economic inequality. Both urban and rural issues were represented in the workshop.
Judges back an unbiased judiciary
The venue, Beawar’s Jawahar Bhawan, wore the spirit of the event, rolling out its own red carpet, the humble dhurrie, for everyone to share equal space. Posters and banners with powerful slogans, collages of RTI applications, artwork and photographs portraying the journey of the movement, and depictions of stories of people’s struggles decorated the place. Stalls selling colourful rural crafts gave the quintessential rural fair vibe while reaffirming the message of the event.
The second day started at the museum site in Narbad Khera, outside the main city of Beawar. The event began with the reciting of the Preamble to the Constitution. Former chief justices Madan Lokur, S. Murlidhar, and Govind Mathur (who joined through the digital medium), along with the people of Beawar, unveiled the foundation stone. “The judges here stand for an unbiased judiciary, imperative for a democracy,” activist Nikhil Dey shared and asked every person present at the venue to put a handful of soil into the foundation of the museum.
The role of art in voicing both protest and principles was visible throughout the event, even in the performances and songs that made a core element of the convention proceedings. A Marwari Hela (a highly stylised folk performance where people from different communities come together and sing on contemporary political and social themes) performed at the museum site sang of the RTI movement and the values of the Constitution. The Hela was a crucial part of the struggle for the RTI, and many important messages of the movement were disseminated through this art form.
Marking the Constitution Day
In Jawahar Bhawan, the atmosphere was vibrant with songs, slogans, street plays, and anecdotes that made the RTI journey. The importance of rural women in leading the movement was reiterated during the celebration. Sushila Devi, the creator of the slogan, “Humara Paisa, Humara Hisaab” (our money, our account), a key slogan of the RTI journey, shared how this came into being. “When I’d send my son to the market with Rs 10, I would ask him for an account of the expenditure. The government is spending crores in my name; will I not ask for an account? Humara Paisa...”, and Jawahar Bhawan resounded with “Humara Hisaab”.
The future of democracy, ways to save our Constitution and its principles, the value of people’s participation in keeping up the integrity of the Constitution, the work needed to protect the shrinking space to protest in the country today, and the interconnection of the Right to Information with the Right to Expression were the core themes around which various discussions and dialogues were held throughout the day. Lawyer Prashanto Chandra Sen gave an example of the power of the RTI in the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023. The Bill amended the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 to change the definition of forest area, which would end up in the destruction of many forest lands. The petitioners against the amendment filed an RTI to procure a copy of a report that supported the decision. The said report did not exist, and so lakhs of acres of forest land were saved due to a single RTI application.
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In the spirit of socialism, a tribunal on social security pensions for the vulnerable sections of society was held where cases of eligible pensioners, who were not receiving any benefits, were presented before justices Lokur and Murlidhar, lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Devvrat, and the media. The tribunal was informed that according to government data, out of 90.8 lakh social security pensioners in Rajasthan, 13.5 lakh were not receiving pensions due to various reasons ranging from a mismatch between the central Aadhaar database and the state’s Jan Aadhaar database to being wrongfully marked as dead or out of state.
A Beawar Declaration was made, based on which the decisions taken from the convention will be implemented. Marking a full circle, the participants of the seminar rallied to Chang Gate, the site of the 40-day dharna for the RTI in 1996, to close the two-day event. To mark the Constitution Day, an online event was held on November 24 where representatives from various minority groups came together in a powerful discussion on the protection of the rights of the marginalised.
Today, ‘Jashn-e-Samvidhan’ is travelling to various villages in Rajasthan to celebrate the Constitution through youth-driven samvidhan yatras (Constitution journeys) where meetings and camps are being organised at schools, NREGA sites, and panchayats around rights-based entitlements while also addressing caste equations and gender parity. A real celebration of 75 years of the adoption of the Indian Constitution needs many such jashns where the Preamble is the prayer and the Constitution the religious text that we truly need to live, breathe, and internalise in our country today. As justice Murlidhar rightly voiced the biggest message of the event at the museum site: “If we don’t work the Constitution, the Constitution will die.”
