Aadhaar Cards: Good riddance!

From its onset it was a doomed project. In a country where a large percentage of population still lives in a rural setup, we were trying to introduce a set up similar to SIN cards. The three year technical ordeal of the common Indian citizen, with costs running through 11000 crores has finally come to an end. The verdict from Supreme Court has finally disallowed the governing bodies from disclosing any collected data with the CBI.

A stung operation by Cobrapost has brought to the forefront shocking loopholes about the whole process. It has now been proven that there was a whole nexus which was successfully providing Aadhaar cards to illegal immigrants, Nepalese nationals and other anti-social elements. Practically anybody could get the supposedly most important identification proof, by paying a small token amount or bribe.

The main objective of an Aadhaar card was the collection of details of bonafide Indian citizens biometrically. Though the process and the planning on paper was very positive and if executed perfectly, would have been a boon to many agencies. But, sadly in our country there is an India in files and another one in the streets and countryside. The details could have streamlined many direct transfer schemes and cut down the standing in ques and waiting. Although, the Aadhaar officials have categorically denied any plans of sharing data with any agency.

There are two main implications of the verdict passed on Monday; firstly the data is not at the discretion of the authorities to share it with any party, including CBI. Consent of the citizen registered on the card is absolutely essential. Secondly, no service or benefit that a citizen rightfully deserves can be denied, in the absence of an Aadhaar card. Hence, the mega ambitious project from UPA, has finally met its doomsday.

So the Aadhaar today is just another photo proof which is on the same category as a driving license or a passport. Sadly, it cannot even be used to avail ration or vote in the coming general elections. In other words it has lost its purpose since 24TH March, 2014.The BJP had reservations about it from day one and it looks like the whole project might get dumped very soon.

People were always skeptical that the agency handling the process may sell this highly critical data with other agencies or even countries, putting personal safety of people at a high risk. Some thought that biometric data could be used for personal agendas in tracking down particular individuals and violation of their basic human rights.

What has actually been achieved in three years is actual mess. Nilekani claims that in reality almost 60crore people have got new cards. But the rest kept making trips to the center’s again and again, every time the rule changed. Then again when the card they receive has errors and in some cases yet again. The company to whom the project was outsourced were incompetent, their agents lacked training and behaved irresponsibly in handling such a massive data collection project. For a cash transfer system to work in this country, we need an association of banks and a full proof identification system.

Everything said and done the biggest seat of judiciary in India, has put a full stop to a project that only spread confusion in the mind of the common masses, wasted our hard earned tax money and proved to be a futile exercise in the end.