Can't junk Aadhaar technology over complaints: Arun Jaitley

Aadhaar is a unique-identity number issued based on biometric, demographic data of Indian residents

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the purview of Aadhaar was being expanded by making it mandatory for direct benefits transfer of subsidy and to check tax evasion.

On complaints of leakage of Aadhaar data, Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha that technology was a learning experience, and that such issues could be addressed by building strong firewalls. The response, he said, cannot be to junk technology.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique-identity number issued based on biometric and demographic data of Indian residents.

The finance minister, replying to the debate on the Finance Bill, termed the leakage of Aadhaar details of cricketer 

M S Dhoni an “immature” act by somebody in Ranchi. “Don’t compare it (Aadhaar) with what happened yesterday with Mr Dhoni because this was a case of individual misconduct for a crave of a selfie or a photograph and he is being blacklisted for 10 years. It was an immature behaviour of the person.”

Aadhaar was a “great initiative” of the previous UPA government, he said, adding that people in the current government initially had doubts about it. He said the Prime Minister was given a presentation, in which he was also present, and questions on the safety of Aadhaar were answered adequately.

He said Aadhaar was being expanded and made mandatory in certain sectors, but there was a provision in the Act that privacy norms must be maintained and the data can’t be made public. “The fact that technology can be broken into is never an argument which is given for not using technology,” he said to a question by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram whether the government can assure that Aadhaar tax data will not become public.