NATIONAL Advisory Council member Aruna Roy has said the UPA government’s Aadhaar unique identity project is an ‘invasive act’ and warned that the UID data will help ‘communal targeting of certain communities’.
Speaking at an RTI seminar held at the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula, she said: “The UID is a dangerous thing. I’m shocked minorities and other communities are not boycotting it.”
“We have doubts about any of these devices (such as UID)…technology will not work (to curb corruption),” she added.
The UPA government and UIDAI head Nandan Nilekani have claimed that the UID will eliminate corruption in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and the public distribution system (PDS).
However, Roy is critical of the UID project.
“How can you force the people to give all this information? The real intention of UID was integration with the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). There should be a political debate on whether the state should collect all data about us and store it in a central silo,” she said.
She also claimed that there was talk about the government thinking of permitting DNA sampling.
Decrying the initiative Roy said “What is the point of giving us various freedoms on one hand and then undermining them (through projects like UID) on the other hand?” The government, she said, “is trying to lull us” into believing they are bringing these projects to benefit us.
Roy has hinted at private interests behind the UID project.
Many of the MoUs for the Aadhaar unique identity project were signed before the (UID) law, she claimed.
“There is a definite agenda to push (implementation) before legislation,” said Roy.
Meanwhile, Nikhil Dey, co-convener of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, has also termed the UID as “an extremely dangerous thing” and felt “we have to be wary of it”.
Dey said UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani had assured that the UID would be completely optional. “But now with UID being linked to the NREGA, how is this optional?” he questioned.
Through the UID, all the information on citizens was available at the click of a button. “Localised biometric systems may be understandable, but we don’t need a central database,” Dey said.
“People are queuing up to get their UID numbers as they feel they won’t get access to government schemes and programmes,” he added.
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