Aadhar
Has You On The Grid
The Supreme Court is due to take a final call on the
limitations to be imposed on Aadhar in the light of its earlier ruling on
Privacy as a fundamental right. And, of course, its interim ruling, permitting
it to carry on doing its job.
It seems improbable, given the pace of the Judiciary, that this
important judgement will be handed down in the next few days during the
remaining tenure of the present Chief Justice Dipak Mishra.
This is pertinent only because CJI Mishra is perceived to
be inclined to the ruling government view that Aadhar is an important means to
put every legitimate citizen on the grid, and should be allowed wide-licence to
operate.
However, his designated successor, Justice Gogoi, due to
take over after October 2nd, is expected to take a more nuanced view,
given his reportedly left- liberal leanings. He was one of the four senior-most
judges of the Supreme Court that rebelled against the current Chief Justice, and held an
unprecedented press conference at the
Press Club of India in New Delhi, challenging the CJI’s right to allocate cases
to “junior judges” as the “Master of the Roster”.
Being a constitutional matter, it will, of course, be
decided by a fairly large bench, hopefully allowing for different views to be
expressed and considered, as part of its composition and process towards a
final judgement.
Of course, parliament has been made supreme since the
Emergency in the Seventies, and will, if necessary, have the legislative last
word.
There is a considerable clamour from the Opposition,
sections of the media, and the Left-Liberal element at large, that Aadhar
should be revoked, or failing this, made voluntary in all cases. This, rather
than mandatory in given instances, or indeed universally, as is demanded by
some others.
Given that the same Left-Liberal element supports the case
for “Urban Naxals” out to murder the Prime Minister being referred to as “Freedom
of Expression/Human Rights Activists”. And refers to Islamic terrorist organization
members, such as those in Hizb Mujahideen, as mere “workers”; not a lot of support
can be expected from such quarters.
Aadhar is more or less essential today to access most goods
and services, make investments, buy assets, or file taxes.
This will remain as
a “voluntary” requirement no matter what the judiciary pronounces, short of
scrapping and undoing the enormously expensive exercise that has already been
completed. This, going by the interim
judgement, and the national interest, is extremely unlikely.
It is therefore a mystery why the vilification campaign
against Aadhar persists with dark innuendoes of a fascist, “big-brother-is- watching”
intent. Will the government use Aadhar to target dissidents or just the
terrorists and illegals? Will it use it to monitor everyone’s financial
dealings to catch malfeasance, or blackmail those it wishes to intimidate?
It could, of course, well do all these things, and other
governments, including Democratic ones, have been known to do so, and more. But
nevertheless, isn’t it necessary, this kind of threat, at least in part, to
keep the good, law abiding citizen safe and secure? Hasn’t the crooked element,
the gamer of the system, the criminal, the cheats, forgers, thugs, terrorists,
illegals, seditionists, spies, the treasonous, and so on, got away with
impunity, despite being in plain sight, and for much too long?
The government, in the interim, has more or less assumed
that it can make Aadhar mandatory and ubiquitous, though there is a preceding,
if perfunctory, “voluntary acceptance” clause.
There are a lot of illegal aliens, the subjects of the NCR mappings,
however imperfect, conducted in Assam so far. That illegal aliens also have
Aadhar cards is a worry, but not a
problem that cannot be solved via adequate cross-referencing of other data like
ancestry and settled domicile to establish citizenship.
The dimensions of the
illegal aliens problem is large, at an estimated 5 crore people, and poses a
substantial security and demographic risk/threat. Particularly when they are
also allowed to vote on the strength of their genuine identity papers but
obtained by questionable means.
This commonsense argument against, outweighs the so-called
humanitarian angle towards illegal “refugees”. It outweighs also the economic
argument, from those who would have soft borders, as if we were a budding EU,
rather than a country besieged with two hostile neighbors. The biggest of them,
in fact, in cahoots with each other, and growing their influence with other
minnows in the area as well.
This despite a more or less constant subversion and
terrorism, sometimes using networks of illegal aliens, many of whom are from
the minority community, hard to ferret out from minority ghettos, and easily radicalized
to boot.
And then there is the more cynical aiding and abetting of
illegal aliens to bolster vote banks in border states such as Bengal, alter
demographics altogether, as in Assam and
other North Eastern States, and even plant Rohingyas all the way across, in
Jammu.
But quite apart from the fate of Aadhar, the electronic and
digital mapping of individuals and their secrets, in the age of nearly a
billion smart phones in use, is so widespread, that the Privacy argument, in
practical terms, is already dead in the water.
The biggest tangible success using Aadhar so far has been
in the direct disbursement of subsidies via authenticated bank accounts of the
poor. Because it has rooted out many false identities, middle men, and
duplications from the system, thereby saving the exchequer crores of rupees, it
does not agree with those who were milking the earlier system.
It is necessary to note however, that the data on Aadhar
apart, the government is within its constitutional rights to conduct various forms of surveillance to protect its integrity
in terms of National Security.
Biometric data is the incontrovertible proof of individual
identity. This has long been known and applied in the issuance of a number of
European visas as well as in other sophisticated security systems gateways.
The United States, the oldest Democracy, even as India is
the most populous one, has long collected and used Aadhar style data via its Social Security numbering
system. It also has covered almost every square inch of its territory via satellite
and terrestrial surveillance cameras. Things on the move are tracked too via
GPS and other systems. Even facilities underground, or in the deep sea, are
monitored today. There is therefore nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Similar
methods and devices are used all over the world in all kinds of political
systems.
Despite this, there are security breaches, electronic data
hackings and subversion, while ever more sophisticated anti-hacking and
anti-data theft systems are being constantly developed.
India has little choice, in a globalised world, but to
follow suit. This is a Digital Age and the analog argument cannot hold water
any more.
Of course, it is understandable that the stripping away of
the erstwhile power to manipulate data to suit oneself is a massive change in
the game that is hard to digest for some. Wanting to go back to paper ballots
is part of this longing. As is the attempt via outfits like Cambridge Analytica
to use personal data clandestinely to influence elections.
International hackings into military hardware, banking
systems and political data banks is also potent enough to develop crack units
to conduct Cyber Warfare in turn.
The Digital Age is throwing up its own challenges, to be
sure, but there is literally no going back.
Possibly, the only way to stay anonymous today is to never
use anything with electronics in it. But is this at all feasible for any length
of time?
(1, 267
words)
For:
My Nation
September
13th, 2018
Gautam
Mukherjee
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