Aadhaar for intrusion

It had become clear last month that linking your Aadhaar number with mobile phones or bank accounts was not mandatory, at least till the matter was resolved in the Supreme Court. However, on Wednesday, the government was taken to task by the court for claiming in the public domain that the mobile linking was required under orders of the Apex court. It defies comprehension as to why the government would have invited the embarrassment upon itself when it is not in a position to enforce the order as yet. The same is true for PAN.

As things began, citizens were fine till Aaadhar linkage was limited to those drawing subsidies from the treasury and left out those who didn’t. However, on ground people are being asked to give the Aadhaar number for everything from school admission to getting a marriage certificate. Lack of awareness is leading to most people complying with the unwarranted requirement, or stand losing a benefit. This is wholly unjustified and illegal denial of services. Both the state and Central governments should thus come out with a positive list of services that require the Aadhaar; but before that they will have to ensure the demand has a legal basis. Anything outside those lists may then be ignored by people till the matter is settled.

The government, defending its case in the Supreme Court, has said that banks and phone companies have more data on clients than the UIDAI even without the Aadhaar linking, so the question of privacy being violated by Aadhaar does not arise. There is truth in the statement to the extent that all of this is part of the larger digital cloud that is gathering over the private citizen, who is steadily losing his privacy; ‘whataboutery’ will not change that fact. Unfortunately, to what extent this global intrusion may go is something that is likely to be settled more by way of might, whether legal or financial, than a nuanced debate within jurisprudence. Certain rights laid down in the Constitution may well end up being reinterpreted.