Opposition attacks Centre for being bully on Aadhaar

Kapil Sibal and Sitaram Yechury sought clarifications from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Bolstered by the Supreme Court (SC) saying that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory for welfare schemes, the Opposition attacked the government for pushing the unique identity number a bit too far.

Speaking during a debate on the Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Congress MP Kapil Sibal and Communist Party of India (Marxist) lawmaker Sitaram Yechury sought clarifications from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on why the government had made Aadhaar mandatory for filing of income-tax returns and for getting a PAN card. 

The apex court, however, said that it cannot stop the government from using the UID for activities such as filing tax returns and purchasing a SIM card. Sibal accused the Centre of violating the SC’s order and warned the government that such data was vulnerable to hackers and could be used to make bank transactions.  “When the Pentagon can be hacked, why can’t this be?” Sibal asked. Questioning the government’s move to spread the Aadhaar net far and wide, Sibal said the previous UPA regime introduced Aadhaar only to plug leakages in the distribution of subsidised rations and not to use it for prying into the activities of others.  “We are living in a police state,” he said. Yechury too blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for unleashing a surveillance state and urged the government to bring a separate Bill to make Aadhaar mandatory for services.