Amend laws to make passport and Aadhaar citizenship proof: Tharoor

Amid the row over the passport-citizenship issue, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said the Government should amend the legal framework to make both the passport and the Aadhaar card valid and conclusive proofs of Indian citizenship unless they are explicitly cancelled or withdrawn by the State.
He said implementing this requires solving a critical administrative hurdle because Aadhaar is currently issued based on 182 days of local residence rather than nationality, and it is held by citizens and non-citizen residents alike.

“The solution is straightforward. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) should introduce a visually distinct Aadhaar card (featuring, say, a visible diagonal red stripe across the front), specifically designated for non-citizens living in India,” Tharoor said.
“The recent statement by the Ministry of External Affairs  — on #PassportSevaDivas, no less! — clarifying that an Indian passport is primarily a ‘travel document and not conclusive proof of citizenship’ has triggered a predictable wave of public bewilderment and political sparring,” the former minister of state for external affairs said on X.

While the Government defends this as a long-standing legal position rooted in Section 20 of the Passports Act of 1967, which technically allows the state to issue passports to non-citizens under rare, public-interest circumstances, this is a distinction without a difference, meaningless to the average citizen, Tharoor argued.

“For decades, the passport has been considered the gold standard of identity. We navigate the gruelling bureaucratic maze of police verifications and document checks required to obtain one, precisely because the state demands concrete proof of citizenship before granting it. “To turn around and declare that the very document born from this rigorous vetting does not actually prove citizenship creates an absurd legal paradox,” he said.

If a passport does not establish domestic citizenship, then what does, asked the MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
“The Supreme Court has already ruled that the Aadhaar card is merely a proof of identity and residence, not citizenship. This leaves millions of Indians in a bizarre administrative limbo where they possess world-class biometric and state-issued documents, yet none are legally deemed ‘conclusive’ proof of their nationality within their own borders,” the Congress leader said.

“To end this fatuous controversy once and for all, a common-sense legislative overhaul is urgently required. The Government should formally amend the legal framework to make both the passport and Aadhaar card valid, conclusive proofs of Indian citizenship unless they are explicitly cancelled or withdrawn by the State,” he said.