Viability of the Aadhaar project has not been found and there has been undue haste in   proceeding with the matter: VS Achuthanandan

VS Achuthanandan—leader of the opposition in Kerala—has made it clear that Aadhaar work should be stopped, according to a report published in the Mathrubhumi. The viability of the Aadhaar project has not been found in its implementation. There has been undue haste in proceeding with the matter. The hasty work in this regard can even affect national security, Mr Achuthanandan said.

The Parliamentary Standing committee has also rejected the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) Bill. There are no clear objectives on why the database is being compiled, and even within the ruling party there are differences of stance. The government is spending crores on this project, and so far only 8 crore people have been covered. Finally, according to Mr Achuthanandan, the work has no standing as far the law is concerned.

In an earlier statement to The Hindu, the opposition leader from Kerala has said that the Unique Identification number (UID) project, being implemented under the title ‘Aadhaar,' had no justification now the Union home ministry itself had expressed serious concerns about its implications for the nation's security. Home minister P Chidambaram himself was on record that the UID project was not being implemented observing all security norms and that the issue deserved to be discussed by the Cabinet committee concerned. He had also reportedly written to the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission pointing out that anybody could prepare ‘Aadhaar' cards without attracting any cross-checking.

Further, according to The Hindu report, with the home minister and the Registrar General expressing reservations about the project, the misgivings expressed by Mr Achuthanandan on the issue have been proved to be true. Despite widespread opposition, the state government in Kerala was going ahead with the project. Fingerprints and other biometric information were being collected without consent from the citizens. In the case of school students, such information was being gathered without obtaining their parents’ consent.

Professor Rajanish Dass, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has also severely criticised the government in its implementation of the UIDAI project. The government had announced the creation of the Unique ID Authority of India (UIDAI) to generate the largest IT project of the globe—the Unique ID (UID) project—with an aim to provide a unique twelve digit number to 1.2 billion residents of India. There have been serious debates in nations like Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom about the viability of implementing national identity policy, given that the chances of misuse of data in a centralized system increases by leaps and bounds and becomes the single point of failure. The total cost of such a programme has been reported, a guesstimate as reported by the Frontline magazine puts the cost of the project (without considering the recurring cost) at around Rs1.5 lakh crore. The cost of failure of such an initiative would be huge for a nation like India which has 27.50% of its population living below the poverty line.
 
According to The Wall Street Journal article (A Sharma, 2010), “critics question whether the project can have as big an impact as its backers promise, given that identity fraud is but one contributor to India’s development struggles. The civil liberties groups complain that the government is collecting too much personal information without sufficient safeguards. The technology requires transferring large amounts of data between the hinterland and an urban database, leading some to question whether the system will succumb to India’s rickety Internet infrastructure”.

The Unique Identity Project in India is a flagship project as being highlighted by the government and is being portrayed as a panacea for all ills that exist in the country. Although time can only tell about the efficiency and efficacy of the project, the very launch of this exercise has made it the largest biometric based identity disbursing e-government project in the globe.