Facts belie Jaitley’s Aadhaar claims

Gopal Krishna
Convener of Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties

At paragraph 118 of his Budget Speech, Arun Jaitely, Finance Minister made three claims in four sentences: ``Aadhaar has provided an identity to every Indian. Aadhar has eased the delivery of so many public services to our people. Every enterprise, major or small, also needs a unique ID. The Government will evolve a Scheme to assign every individual enterprise in India a unique ID.''

They do not present a factual picture.

Claim No.1: Aadhaar has provided an identity to every Indian

Fact: Every Indian except 0.03 per cent of the population admittedly had an identity already. This was disclosed in a RTI reply dated April 28, 2015 that only 2.19 lakh residents (0.03 per cent) were given Aadhaar numbers based on the introduction by the introducer system because they did not have a pre-existing identity.

The UIDAI issued the first Aadhaar number to Ranjna Sadashiv Sonwane, a tribal woman from Maharashtra on September 29, 2010. The UIDAI press note had claimed, "Today there are a large number of residents, face challenges in accessing various public benefit programs due to the lack of a clear identity proof. The Aadhaar number will ease these difficulties by providing a nationally valid and verifiable single source of identity proof."

The RTI reply reveals that the claim made by government in its press note of September 2010 and in the Budget speech of 2018-19 remains misleading and glaringly untrue.

While presenting the Union Budget 2009-10, then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the UIDAI was set up to ``establish an online data base with identity and biometric details of Indian residence and provide enrolment and verification services across the country.'' Unlike what is being claimed now, no claim was made about providing identity because Indians already had pre-existing identity.   

In the Budget speech of 2010-11 it is admitted that "CIDR will be handed over to the Managed Service Provider (MSP) on a long term contract basis." CIDR refers to Central Identities Data Repository of biometric UID/Aadhaar numbers. British firm Ernst & Young was given the contract for setting up the CIDR and selection of MSP. The Economic Survey 2011-12 observed, "The Aadhaar project is set to become the largest biometric capture and identification project in the world" even as the UIDAI was "discharging its functions without any legal basis" as per the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.  This has been brought to the notice of the Supreme Court's five-judge Constitution Bench hearing the petitions challenging the constitutionality of Aadhaar. 

Claim No.2: Aadhaar has eased the delivery of so many public services to our people.

Fact: The RTI reply proves that that 'an inability to prove identity" was not a major barrier to access benefits and subsidies. The death of several citizens including Aadhaar holders due to denial of public services shows that it has made life difficult for citizens who are facing the cruel denial of their citizens' entitlements due to Aadhaar, a proof of having resided in India for at least 182 days. This is despite the fact that it is not a proof of citizenship. If this trend continues, citizens may be denied the right to vote.

Claim No.3: Every enterprise, major or small, also needs a unique ID. The Government will evolve a Scheme to assign every individual enterprise in India a unique ID.

Fact: The minister did not inform Parliament and the citizens about the conceptual, structural and functional link between UIDAI and goods and services tax network (GSTN) from the very outset. Notably, chief executive officer of UIDAI, A.B. Pandey is also the chairman of GSTN since September 8, 2017. The Aadhaar Act came into force in toto from September 12, 2016 and Central GST Act came into effect on July 1, 2017. The fact is that the Unique ID to which the minister is referring to is mentioned nine times in the Central GST Act, 2017.  Its Section 25 deals with the procedure for registration wherein it is stated that "any other person or class of persons, as may be notified by the Commissioner, shall be granted a Unique Identity Number in such manner and for such purposes, including refund of taxes on the notified supplies of goods or services or both received by them, as may be prescribed. Section 150 (1) (o) also deals with it.

The marriage between biometric surveillance and financial surveillance of citizens seems to be breaching the social contract by making citizens subordinate to alien commercial interests of all shades amidst blitzkrieg of advertisements and misinformation campaigns.