Why Modi government desperately wants you to link your mobile phone number with Aadhaar
Are you being hounded by your mobile phone operator to link your number with Aadhaar? Are they assuming threat call proportions?
Well, if you thought the government is going to re-think its decision, think again. Because the government isn’t backing out.
Highly placed sources within the government have told India Today that the deadline to link mobile numbers to Aadhaar remains unchanged. If by February 6, 2018, you haven’t done due diligence, your mobile connection is liable to be deactivated.
There has been massive resistance against the government’s move to link mobile numbers to Aadhaar, but the government is convinced this is the only process of central identification that cannot be misused.
Recently even West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee threw in the gauntlet in support of the resistance movement. “I will not link my mobile number to Aadhaar. They can disconnect my phone if they want to,” she challenged.
Since the government’s directive to mobile phone operators that they have to mandate linking of mobile numbers to Aadhaar in February this year, 50 crore subscribers have adhered to the new norms. That still leaves out 60 crore subscribers who are yet to fall in line.
Those resisting, have argued that mandating linking Aadhar to various schemes and facilities is infringing upon individual civil liberties and privacy. Currently the Supreme Court is in the process of hearing a bunch of petitions that oppose Aadhaar.
The petitioners received a shot in the arm in August when a bench of nine judges in the Supreme Court ruled privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 and Part III of the Constitution.
While they have been pressing the Supreme Court to give the petitions a final hearing at the earliest, the government has sought deferral till March in its latest submission to the apex court.
Attorney general KK Venugopal, arguing on behalf of the Union government in court on Wednesday, said that any order in the matter should be held back until the government completes the process of formulating a draft Data Protection Bill. This process was initiated by the Centre on July 31, to assuage fears that individual data in possession of the government through Aadhar stands to be exposed if it is mandated that Aadhaar be linked to various programmes and services.
A committee under former Supreme Court judge justice BN Srikrishna was formed to look at the gamut of data protection norms in the country presently and recommend changes that can be made to develop a more robust system. The government wants us to wait until the committee has fulfilled its mandate.
Meanwhile, the Centre, in court, has suggested that it is willing to extend the deadline for linking Aadhaar to close to 135 government welfare schemes. Though no order or notification is available of the same, the government has said the deadline can be pushed to March 31, 2018, from the current December 31, 2017, albeit only for those who haven’t enrolled for Aadhaar yet.
This, of course, comes after the Jharkhand government was left red-faced recently when an 11-year-old girl from the state allegedly died of starvation after her family’s ration card was cancelled for not being linked to Aadhaar.
But while the government may have been willing to make concessions in the wake of these embarrassing episodes vis-a-vis government schemes, on the mobile number count, it is unwilling to budge.
“People should understand the distinction between privacy and identification. Privacy has so many facets. Aadhaar data is stored in a Central database and it can’t be revealed,” a high-level government source who’s worked minutely on the process told India Today.
“Aadhaar data can’t be duplicated. It can’t travel from the Central server at the time of verifying Aadhaar number for linking it with any service. And if the need is to make amendments to the IT Act to allow for better and more stringent protection of an individual’s rights, we are willing to do so,” he added.
The ball is now in the Supreme Court.