Many Bangaloreans are gladly saying “I told you so!” since the Supreme
Court on Monday ruled that the Unique Identification Card cannot be
mandatory to avail benefits of government schemes.
There have been several active campaigns against Aadhaar, and some of
the campaigners, besides petitions, have even filed suits against the
government on the UID project. For them, the SC ruling has come as a
welcome move. It is the first step towards halting the faulty project,
they say.
Colonel Thomas Mathew, one of the first to file a civil suit on this in
early 2011, vows that the fight is far from over. “The SC ruling today
is the first step in the right direction of course. But we will continue
our fight. We had asked the court to put a stop to this Aadhaar
project. Instead the SC has said that the registration for the identity
card was purely voluntary and government departments cannot demand the
card in order to provide a service.”
WHERE’S THE LEGAL SANCTITY?
There is no law or ordinance regarding Aadhaar. “If the
government links ration, LPG or scholarships to Aadhaar, what right to
food or right to education do we as Indian citizens claim to have?”
Colonel Mathew asks. “If a stranger asks for your name and address, you
do not give, and yet you willingly run to fly-by-night operators to
submit your biometrics. Did you check who will make use of your
information? Which company made the instruments which recorded the
biometrics? Will your data be used by other countries? The public are
stupid to give all their information to contract employees who are there
today and gone tomorrow,” he rues.
The reason why he filed a suit instead of a PIL, he says, was to expose the fraud and corruption involved in the whole process.
“Everything about it is wrong. The government has been
misleading the public about it. It entrusted the process to two
companies, L1 Identities Solutions, which was bought by Safron and
renamed as Morpho Trust, and Accenture Services, both of which have been
mired in fraud. Both of them have been found guilty on several counts
and had to pay huge penalties.
The suit was dismissed once, and the appeal on it will be heard in
October. “All the people involved in this project should be sent to
jail,” he says.
NOT A PENNY MORE
Vinay B, an urban reform researcher, who has been actively
fighting for the Say No to UID Campaign, says that Monday’s SC ruling
proves that “the government has been misleading people.
By making citizens feel threatened that they would lose out on benefits
if they do not have an Aadhaar, the government has treated people
badly. They spread so many misconceptions about this project. For
example, most people believe it to be a card, when it is just a letter.
The whole UID exercise shows how people need to be aware. I hope the
people will take the government to task now,” he says.
Crores of rupees have been spent on the project already. Not another
paisa should be spent on it anymore, these campaigners say.