Death of yet another RTI activist, Amit Jethva, in Ahmedabad last night, brings to fore the obvious question: Is the government serious about the whistleblowers’ safety? Does it really want to fight corruption and encourage people to expose it?

Doubts arise firstly because ever since IITian Satyendra Dube was killed in 2003 in Patna for exposing corruption in the national highway projects, the government has repeatedly promised to bring a law to provide protection to the whistleblowers. But nothing has been done about it so far.

Secondly, more and more public-spirited individuals who have been fighting and exposing corruption on their own are being eliminated with such impunity that one suspects complicity of the powers-that-be. Jethva was shot dead outside the Gujarat high court—a high security zone. He had no security in spite of complaints about threat to his life and now a BJP MP is being accused of organizing the hit.

Satish Shetty, another RTI activist, was lynched in broad day light on the outskirts of Pune in January this year. Again, the same story. Despite security threat, he was not provided protection by the government. Thereafter, two more RTI activists Shashidhar of Bihar and Datta Patil of Maharashtra, were killed. Not to foget Manjunath, a manager with the Indian Oil Corporation, who was killed in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2005.

How many more deaths do we require before the government actually gets its act together and provides protection to the whistleblowers? Or does it want to do so?