Reply to the article 'Dissent and Aadhaar'

This is in reference to the article titled „Dissent and Aadhaar“ appearing in the Indian Express issue of May 8, 2017. http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/dissent-and-aadhaar-4645231/

 

I read the article with a lot of interest, however with all due respect to him; I disagree with the author on several accounts. Firstly why would any UID create dissent? This is not a new concept and has been widely implemented in various countries of the world. Inspite of all these UID systems in western countries they have not reached the zero-crime state, so neither will we. In European countries and also the USA where, everything works fine just with one’s unique social security number, one can access medical care and so much more with this ID. Of course India is a huge country compared to other smaller countries of Europe geography and population wise and hence implementation will take time. There will be technical difficulties and mistakes. We are still getting there. Initially Aadhaar was proposed to be a mandatory thing but later had to be declared voluntary due to opposition from many sections of the country. Making it voluntary defeats the entire purpose of this project. But as you rightly pointed out that it will prevent identity theft, which is a big concern given the numerous terrorist attacks (BTW, terrorism is a global nuisance now). We are dealing with many more issues apart from corruption. Firstly the connection of LPG with Aadhar has curbed black marketing of which every common person has been a victim of, some or the other time. Getting the correct spelling or age on the Aadhar card is not such a big hassle. Why should the widow claiming pension, understate her age? You talk of corruption at contractor level. Sadly corruption is a huge problem at all levels in our society. So Aadhar at least removes it at the lower level, eliminating duplicity.  The BOFORS and 3G/4G kind of corruption cannot be prevented with this. Our nation is fighting a battle at so many fronts. We are evolving and Aadhar is not the end. It only makes the life of common person easier, getting a SIM card, registering agreements, opening bank accounts, applying for passport, licence etc. All these things had become painful for the common man who was always caught in red-tapism and bureaucracy.

I am very optimistic that Aadhar has come as a boon and should be made mandatory. It will bring honesty and integrity among citizens. I have seen the benefits of it in my life as a common citizen and even to my domestic helpers who belong to the lower income group. Such articles only try to create confusion and hence ‘dissent’ they talk about in the article.