Preferring the Known Devil

Given how corrupt, incompetent and self-serving our politicians are, I’ve been a fan of judicial activism. And then the Supreme Court ruled in September, 2013 that “no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card, inspite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory”.

I had assumed that the reason for the SC ruling was that not everyone had been issued one yet; so I felt it was really a comment on the timing. But as it turns out, the SC ruling was against the whole concept of Aadhar. Because the court reiterated the 2013 ruling recently when 750 million Aadhar cards have been issued!

So what are the problems exactly? Security risks, claims the lawyer who argued against it:
“On the surface it (Aadhaar) is a simple document of identity, but it has linkages by means of iris scans and biometric details. God forbid if identities are exchanged or mistaken. The Executive's scheme involves private partners. Who are these private partners?”

By this wonderful “logic”, we should abort the idea of developing the private sector for defense contracts too, right? And just keep trusting the US/ French/ Israeli defense contractors instead. Because…actually, I can’t think of any reason for this ridiculous “line of reasoning”.

The Pentagon’s email system was hacked recently; but I don’t remember the US shutting down the Pentagon. Or closing all its Internet communications and go back to the Stone Age! No, the solution for security risks is to ensure and improve security measures, not to abandon the system altogether.

Further note the insanity and danger of this approach of “what if” thinking. If we should shut down systems not because they were breached but because they might be breached, where does it end? Should we arrest victims of crimes because they might take the law into their hands? It’s a slippery slope, and sadly the Supreme Court seems to be taking us down that road.

Ironically, it’s the very same biometrics of Aadhar which makes fraud so much harder. The money saved from such fraud that is rampant under the non-Aadhar system from just one area (food subsidies) would be more than enough to fund the OROP (One Rank, One Pension) proposal/demand.

But hey, let’s not pay more to the soldiers who actually defend this country and instead continue with systems that make it easy to cheat and swindle. Because, what if? Apparently a system that is known to be corrupt and full of holes is better than a system that might be breached. How else can we ensure that “Rahul Gandhi turns up at an ex-serviceman's home and offers fake sympathies”?

Comments

  1. KumarAugust 27, 2015 at 9:37 PM

    I agree.

    I am of the opinion that Aaadhaar has some benefits to offer both to the citizen and the authorities; some of them may be explicit and some others implicit. Like you say, there are no doubt dangers, but should our planning be done entirely based on "what if...?" in which the context is invariably negative. There are plenty of "what if...?" in Aadhaar use that has benefits to offer too. Is there any man-made system in the world that is free of dangers? Do systems get vetoed out of fear always? We are all victims of a continuously manipulated world. In India activism by people is a new and developing trend. While there are many good results emerging, activism has a negative effect too - it tends to be an 'Abominable No-man' to almost everything! Activism has the potential to stagnate anything within its power.

    In our country, some things are messed up by the politicians. Some other things are messed up by the people. Yet other things are messed up by both! I am not sure where Aadhaar fits in. Aadhaar, for all the crores sunk into it, may not survive. If it becomes extinct, ensuing political blame-game will diffuse everything and confuse the people. It will also achieve its aim: ensuring no involved politician needs to bear any responsibility hence not guilty; after that, we the people can get ready for the next national mess.

    We are waiting for things to happen differently here. Are we justified in retaining our hope?

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