Supreme Court has now come to the end of hearing the PIL on the Aadhaar. Whatever be the actual petition it is clear that the opposition to Aadhaar stems mainly from the Black Money holders and Benami property holders who are threatened out of their existence with the identification of their misdeeds and Black wealth accumulated over time.
India having been corrupted systemically by the ruling Congress Party since the days of Mrs Indira Gandhi (as people of our generation know of), there is corruption in every aspect of our life. Our politicians, Bureaucrats, Police and even the Judiciary is exposed to the menace of corruption though different segments have absorbed it to different extent.
Businessmen also have accumulated black wealth but their accumulation is because of tax evasion. Otherwise the black money of businessmen is generated out of their hard work or business. The Black wealth accumulated by the officials and politicians on the other hand is of a different nature. It has originated out of corruption and additionally continued with tax evasion.
Now all these persons who are threatened with the loss of their ill gotten wealth have come together to petition to the Supreme Court that mandatory linking of Aadhaar to Bank accounts and the proposed property registrations is opposed to “Privacy” and hence it should be scrapped.
Privacy is not a shield for Corruption
Without any doubt, “Privacy” is being used as an excuse to cover up illegal accumulation of Black wealth and the Supreme Court cannot be seen as supporting this cause.
All Privacy regulations provide an exception that “Privacy” is not a right that can be used by a citizen when the State has to consider” Public Interest” and “National Security”.
We are not sure if the lawyers who will be arguing for the Government will not collude with the opposition and put up a weak argument to enable the Judiciary to scrap Aadhaar linkage to basic services.
A Citizen has no right to claim immunity from being punished for the larger good of the society. The judiciary has its role in checking the misuse of any law including the Aadhaar law just as the SC/ST atrocities Act.
Hence the Supreme Court Bench has to place the national interest paramount and not be swayed by the arguments of the Aadhaar opponents. I have some faith that the current CJI will ensure it. It should be done before the “Dissenting” judges take over our system and politicize the judiciary.
Virtual ID eliminates most of the concerns against Aadhaar
In this context, the much awaited Virtual Aadhaar ID scheme of UIDAI has now become operational. Under this scheme all services which require Aadhaar number will now use the “Pseudonomized ID” which is the 16 digit Virtual ID which the Aadaar holder picks up on the Aadhaar website. The original aadhaar number remains confidential with the user. The intermediary who uses the virtual ID will not have the demographic data mapped to the original Aadhaar ID and hence the kind of data breaches that happenned at the intermediary end in the past for which UIDAI is being blamed cannot happen in the future.
This Virtual ID is not a permanent ID and can be regenerated randomly every time the aadhaar holder wants to use it. He can use it as a single purpose ID and ensure that no two intermediaries have his data mapped to the same Aadhaar ID.
This system therefore addresses the concern on Aadhaar security at the intermediary end for all future transactions.
Of course some critics may still ask what about the past?. There could be solutions for the same which could be considered in future.
Critics will also ask what is the guarantee that the data may not be leaked from the UIDAI itself. There will of course be security at the UIDAI so that no single person will be able to leak Aadhaar information since multiple levles of authentication would be required.
If the critics still ask whether it is not possible for multiple persons to collude and commit a fraud, I would say if a day comes to that then we the Indians donot deserve the Aadhaar.
We know that when the previous Congress regime was in place, the country was run in the name of PM by a coterie which was Pro Pakistan and Anti India. It can be speculated that several of the national secrets could have then been shared with the enemy during this time. Conspiracies could have been hatched to put our Military to shame and create a bogey of Hindu terrorism. In future also, if those who want to destroy our country come to power, we are not sure if they will rule in the interest of the country.
The opposition political parties in India which are behind the Anti Aadhaar discussion in Supreme Court had once given Supari to eliminate Mr Modi much before he became PM. Now they are trying to use the Supreme Court as the weapon to kill the ambition of Mr Modi to eliminate corruption in India.
Hence the Aadhaar case has become a symbol of a fight between those who despise corruption and those who worship it.
If the opposition comes to power, there is the danger that they may themselves access Aadhaar data and hand it over to Cambridge Analytica so that they will never lose the election again.
Supreme Court has to show its character
I hope the final decision of the Supreme Court will prove that India still retains the ability to stand up to all divisive forces and show character that has made this country survive against the onslaught of foreign invasions time and again.
Naavi
Also Refer:
It is Y2K Momeent again in India with Virtual Aadhaar ID
How Aadhaar Security reaches a new dimesion with Virtual Aadhaar ID
Three days to go for mandatory use of Virtual Aadhaar ID Who is ready?
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