Aadhaar

There has been so much controversy on the Aadhaar card and its critic are shouting from roof top that it will turn the country into police state. Even  New York Times in their article recently described it as Big Brother. Which is totally false, in fact Aadhaar is the world’s first biometric card which covers 1.2 billion people and empowers them  to establish their identity and facilitates them to receive entitlements. Actually it has saved about  Rs 80,000 Cr of exchequers money in last 3 years, by eliminating middlemen and bogus people,who were fraudulently receiving govt grants. Actually it also helps to check tax evasion, money laundering and terror financing.

In reality it has become a game changer for the downtrodden and below the poverty line citizens and therefore is being attacked by the people who have vested interests, as they are finding it difficult to siphon off funds from different govt schemes, which are meant for poor people.  These type of peoples are shouting that Aadhaar increases the state power and will become tool of surveillance.

Now let us talk of world’s top country, whom the world follows. In USA Social Security Number (SSN) was introduced in 1935  during the great depression of 1930s. In 1942 President Frankline Rosevelt expanded its scope, which mandated all the federal agencies to use SSN exclusively in their programs. In 1962, SSN was adopted as official Tax Identification Number for Income Tax purposes. The Social Security Act and other laws were amended time to time, to say that state may, in the administration of taxes,public assistance (food stamps,scholorships, licence, or motor registration law) use SSN to establish identity. In USA courts held that the mandatory use of SSN  is constitutional. In USA SSN was made compulsory for opening bank account and investment accounts, and birth & death registration. In UK too you must have National Insurance Number (NIN) to avail important services as applying for work permits, opening of Bank accounts, paying taxes, receiving child benefits and getting voting rights. Now critics says  both SSN & NIN are non biometric while Aadhaar is biometric, in fact all should be happy that we are one step ahead of USA & UK, as biometric is a fool proof system.

So with SSN & NIN in existance for last so many states, have these countries became surveillance state, but only India will become Police/surveillance state by the introduction of Aadhaar card which functions on biometric. The Aadhaar act of 2016, eliminates the possibility of any state surveillance. The act is based on the principle of privacy by design-minimal data, federated databases and optimal ignorance, which in turn ensures that no agency-UIDAI, govt or private can trail or profile any individual. UIDAI, while enrolling, collects minimal data like name, date of birth, gender, address and biometrics. They do not collect any family data, contact lists, likes & dislikes, which many social media platforms/apps collect. All these critics are happy to share data with facebook, twitter etc.

One report states that data leakage from 210 govt websites. what it fails to see that the information published was drawn from public records, containing address, bank account number, Aadhaar number of beneficiaries , who have receive the govt assistance. This information any way could have been obtained by  any one through Right To Information (RTI) act. In fact it was a not a leaked information, that it as published by the concerned dept as a measure of transparency, if some one has received assistance from public funds, why the detail should not be revealed.

How can the name, address, age etc can be confidential. This type of information is also available on voters ID cards. As far as Aadhaar number is concerned, it is not confidential, but unlike SSN & NIN, it requires biometrics, so disclosure of number  can not yield any information unless it is opened with biometrics and which is a personal thing and it is also a fact that no two biometrics match. So Aadhaar in a way is unique card.  You must also compare with the kind of public information available on USA websites. So then can it be termed as these USA based sites are leaking personal information of every US citizen. There are few websites in USA, who can provide(for a small fees) information of  any US citizen. This information will be more that what is provided on 210 websites of Govt of India.

So friends, all the controversy regarding Aadhaar is falsely spread by vested interests. And who are these vested interests- corrupt politicians, corrupt bureaucrats, members of judiciary who are corrupt, and all those people who were earlier not paying tax and were mainly doing business in black money. These are the people who are all affected by the govt policies of demonitisation, GST and now Aadhaar linking with all the services.

One should understand that unique ID is there in all the developed countries in one form or other, it is wrong to say that Aadhaar is not required and it should not be linked with other services.  If you ask any ordinary citizen, the response will be different than of these detractors of Aadhaar, who are only opposing  it for their self interest. I do not understand what is wrong in linking your Aadhaar with your mobile, credit card , bank account or any other services, because we have already provided them with basic information which is available on Aadhaar , when we enrolled for their services. On the contrary there are more chances of information leakage from social media like facebook and others. You are all aware that how the data leakage happened  from face book( my blog of 18th Apr 2018).

In the end , friends what is your opinion on this issue.

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