Current Affairs : Anti-corruption Movement : Ms.Aruna Roy, Member NAC
I was curious about Aruna Roy, who is emphatically against the Jan Lokpal Bill and Anna Hazaare’s campaign and monopolized the discussion on Times Now a little while ago. So I looked her up and was very surprised to find that she is a member of Sonia Gandhis’s brainchild – the National Advisory Council, which is spoken of in circles-in-the know as the real power organisation behind the cabinet. Media only talked about her her RTI role. I have collected some clips and links below.
Here is a view on the NAC excerpted from a write-up on the Anti-Communal Bill that she is working on : http://centreright.in/2011/05/communal-violence-bill-a-conspiracy-by-nac/
NAC is an extra-constitutional body that was constituted by an executive order in the year 2004. In this regard it is similar to the Planning Commission of India, which has acquired allmost an indispensable role for itself when it comes to economic policy. The crucial difference being that the Planning Commission is chaired by the PM… Sonia Gandhi, is the Chairperson of NAC. Despite being an outcome of national politics, NAC has off late come to represent and position itself as a government within government, allowing the ruling party to position itself both with and against the government.
Wikipedia gives this as the composition of the NAC :
“The NAC – II is a mix of activists, retired bureaucrats, economists, politicians and an industrialist.
- Sonia Gandhi – Chairman
- Prof. M.S. Swaminathan - Agricultural scientist and MP
- Dr. Ram Dayal Munda - MP
- Aruna Roy - Retired bureaucrat
- Jean Dreze - Development economist
- Narendra Jadhav - former bureaucrat & Member, Planning Commission
- Harsh Mander - Retired Bureaucrat
- Prof. Pramod Tandon - Vice Chancellor, North Eastern Hill University
- Deep Joshi - Social activist
- Madhav Gadgil - Ecologist
- Farah Naqvi - Social activist
- Dr. N. C. Saxena - former bureaucrat
- Anu Aga - Businesswoman
- A. K. Shiva Kumar - Economist[2]
- Mirai Chatterjee - Coordinator, SEWA, Ahmedabad
The NAC secretariat has Rita Sharma as its Secretary.[3][4]“
The NAC site has this to say about Aruna at this link : http://nac.nic.in/members/aruna.htm
“ Aruna Roy is a social and political activist. She was born in Chennai in 1946, and worked in the Indian Administrative Service from 1968 to 1975. She resigned in order to devote her time to social work and social reform. She joined the Social Work and Research Center in Tilonia, Rajasthan, which had been set up by her husband Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy where she worked until 1983. She then moved to Devdungri, Rajsamand District, Rajasthan in 1987, and along with Shanker Singh, Nikhil Dey and many others helped to form the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS).* Aruna Roy is a prominenet member of many campaigns. She is one of the founders of the movement for Right to Information in India. The movement has been credited for getting Right to Information laws passed in several States, including the Rajasthan Right to Information Act passed in the year 2000. The RTI movement and campaign also played a crucial role in the passage of strong national legislation for the Right to information in the year 2005. Her contribution to the cause has been widely appreciated.
In 2000, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. Aruna Roy requested that the award be given to the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, but was informed that it was only given to individuals. She put the award money into a trust to support the process of democratic struggles. She has also been a member of different public hearings, tribunals and peoples commissions including the “Concerned Citizens Tribunal”, which investigated the organized violence and killings of innocent people in Gujarat in 2002.
She was a member of the Central governments National Advisory Council from 2004-2006, where she played a key role in incorporating strong citizens entitlements in the recently enacted Right to Information and National Rural Employment Guarantee Acts. She is currently a member of the National Employment Guarantee Council.
Aruna Roy, is a member of the MKSS, the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information, NAPM, PUCL and similar campaigns”.
Satya
Other posts on Current Affairs
- Current Affairs : Thoughts on Corruption and on the Anti-Corruption cum People Empowerment Movement
- Current Affairs : Anti-Corruption Movement : A pilgrimage to Freedom Park (Central Jail), Bangalore
- Current Affairs : Anti-Corruption : International Organisations
- Current Affairs : Anti-Corruption Movement : Manish Sisodia : People’s Empowerment through transparent, accountable, governance (PRCF)
- Current Affairs : Anti-Corruption Movement : Arnab Goswami : Times Now : Coverage
- Current Affairs : Freedom Park, Bangalore – A Sakthi Peetham : Anti-Corruption Movement : Anna Hazaare
- Current Affairs : Anti-Corruption Movement : Anna Hazaare : Freedom Park, Bangalore : Photographs
- Current Affairs : Squirrel’s Support : Chanting Gita to express support for Anna
- Current Affairs : Squirrel Support : Locations where you can walk/meet to express support for Anna. (Map Link)
- Current Affairs : Rajeev Chandrasekhar : To Table Jan Lokbal Bill in Rajya Sabha
- Current Affairs : Stand up and be counted : I remember… : Kavana Sarma
- Subhashita : Bhartruhari : Svartha, Parartha : For the Self, For Others : Ete Satpurushah
- Current Affairs : Discredit, Divide and Rule policy
- Current Affairs : The power of unselfishness : Nihswartha : Anna Hazaare
- Current Affairs : Jai Kiran Bedi!
- Current Affairs : Happy Belated Independence Day!
- Current Affairs : Give a Call : India Against Corruption : Indian Self-Empowerment
- Current Affairs : Arvind Kejriwal : A Hero of our times.
- Current Affairs : The gun-less classes : unarmed people, armed state machinery
- Current Affairs : The Victims of Corruption Fight Back!
- Current Affairs : Praying for Anna Hazare
