Aadhaar project in a mess of own making
The mess that the Aadhaar scheme has landed in is a classic example of how a good-intentioned project can go haywire if it is not wisely implemented. Since its inception, Aadhaar has been plagued by a host of issues pertaining to privacy, security, legality and legitimacy, among others. On Monday, some of these weaknesses were re-exposed, as the project received body blows from the judiciary as well as the media. In the first case, the Supreme Court put a blanket ban on the Government and the Unique Identification Authority of India, the nodal agency for the Aadhaar project, with regard to sharing its vast database of biometric information with other agencies, public or private. The order, which came in response to an ongoing rape case in Goa, also applies to criminal cases wherein investigators cannot access the biometric data of suspects unless the cardholder consents to it in writing. The apex court’s ruling protects the privacy of Aadhaar card holders for now, but concerns regarding the safety of the data collected by the UIAI and the manner in which it may be abused in the future still remain. The authority has collected the personal information of 60 crore people and is processing the details of an additional 10 lakh individuals every day. Without stringent guidelines on how this information can be accessed and used, the potential for abuse, both by the state and private players, is enormous; if the database falls into wrong hands, crores of people across the country can be held hostage.
Another problematic issue, which was also addressed by the Supreme Court on Monday, was with regard to making the Aadhaar card mandatory. Given that the law is still unclear on the legitimacy of the scheme — whether citizens can be forced to give their biometric details to the state, for instance, is still being debated — the Government cannot make the ownership of the card compulsory for access to any state services or benefits such as subsidised food under the public distribution system. True, the card was envisaged as a one-stop solution to streamline the process, but unless the project’s corollary issues are settled, citizens cannot be compelled to buy into it. This was an observation that the Supreme Court had made last year as well. That the Government failed to implement it, by nullifying its past orders which had made the Aadhaar card mandatory, only shows the extent of the problem.
A strong indictment against the Aadhaar scheme has also come from a sting operation recently conducted by a media organisation that showed how the card was being distributed to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan for a few hundred rupees in bribe. Apart from the obvious focus on corrupt officials and national security, the sting operation brings back the debate on Aadhaar being made available to all ‘residents' of India, as opposed to just citizens. This is yet another controversy that has dogged the UPA's flagship scheme.