Attaching numbers to people, digitizing their data, and storing these in databases is the modern IT way of branding people, so that those who ‘misbehave’ could be tracked and tackled. This is the first part of a nine-part series on the unique identification number scheme and its possible misuse by politicians, bureaucrats and foreign contractors

Intolerance of criticism or politicians’ fear of loss of office results in their need to control people. They imagine, with some justification, that IT would enable them to do so. With advances in technologies, such as biometrics, they like to, and are led to believe that it is possible to control people using these technology tools. Thus, a popular misconception is that fingerprints and other biometrics would uniquely identify a person. This is far from true.

“The Economist” of 1 October 2010, said, "THANKS to gangster movies, cop shows and spy thrillers, people have come to think of fingerprints and other biometric means of identifying evildoers as being completely foolproof. In reality, they are not and never have been, and few engineers who design such screening tools have ever claimed them to be so. Yet the myth has persisted among the public at large and officialdom in particular. In the process, it has led— especially since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001—to a great deal of public money being squandered and worse, to the fostering of a sense of security that is largely misplaced.”

It is difficult to manipulate people. Numbers are easily manipulated. IT facilitates number crunching. Hence, the logic of systems intended to manipulate people, so that they adhere to certain behaviours acceptable to rulers (politicians, bureaucrats and some business persons), is to attach numbers to people. In the ancient world, the Romans and others branded slaves. Attaching numbers to people, digitizing their data, and storing these in databases is the modern IT way of branding people, so that those who ‘misbehave’ could be tracked and tackled.

Such attempts are packaged as meant for other purposes. For example, Bush in the US passed the “Real ID Act, 2005” to incorporate biometrics in driving licenses. Blair, in UK, brought the “National ID Card Act” also in 2005.  These were promoted as ways to control illegal immigration. Bush’s Act has been given a quiet burial and Blair’s scrapped.

In scrapping the Blair Act, home secretary, Theresa May, called it, “The worst of government, intrusive bullying, and an assault on personal liberties.” She added, “We propose to do government business as servants of the people, not their masters”.

Our politicians seem to think that they are rulers. They have come out with the Indian version of their people-manipulation tool. It is called ‘UID’, Unique Identification. Shedding crocodile tears, they say that it is for giving an ID to those who do not have an ID. The deceit is immediately exposed, in the UID enrolment form itself. 

The Form accepts 14 other identities, like ration cards, driving licenses, PAN cards, etc. Is it not silly that no one calls this bluff? The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) claims that the ID it provides is, “a unique identification number that can be verified and authenticated in an online, cost-effective manner, which is robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities.”

UID—the ultimate ID theft

Giving IDs or taking them?

The UIDAI is not providing anyone, let alone those who do not have it, an identity, but it is giving each one of us a “UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER”. Instead of giving us IDs, it is taking our existing Ids—passports, driving licenses, PAN cards, ration cards, etc—linking these to a number and giving each of us a NUMBER. We, the people, cannot identify ourselves or prove our ID to anyone. To prove one’s ID, the database has to be queried.  The database is controlled by the UIDAI and its foreign contractors carry out the authentication of the ID. Hence, UIDAI and its foreign contractors control our ID.

This is why Prof Ian Angell, head of Informatics at the London School of Economics, called such central databases under government control, “The Ultimate Identity Theft”, in an article to “Times Online”. So, everyone is numbered, like the branding of Roman slaves. This subterfuge is lost on almost all people. Most people labour under the misconception that they would have a “portable ID”, which they could use to prove who they are - a convenient personal asset.

Every ID we have, be it a driving license, PAN card or passport are all ‘Portable’. Anywhere in India, these are accepted as proof of our ID. Our passports are accepted across the world. UIDAI's claim that ration cards are portable IDs and that those holding these UID number-linked ration cards could draw their rations anywhere is a lie. Even cash transfers, instead of rations, would not be possible when the ration card holder moves from one ration shop and state to which he/she is attached to another location.

To repeat what was said above, for clarity and emphasis; people are not given an ID, but a number. The number is in a database. To establish one’s ID, the database has to be queried. Who controls the database? Obviously, it is not you. It is the government, meaning some politician, bureaucrat or company official who manages the database. In this case, the ultimate control rests with the foreign private company contractor of UIDAI who provides the biometric technology and authenticates IDs using it.

A brand name for branding people

The second deceit in the UID scheme is its promotion as a tool that would prevent welfare subsidy leakages, enable access to government services and make service delivery efficient. To promote this falsehood, UIDAI has given the UID scheme a brand name, ‘Aadhaar’. The brand name is deliberately not used even once in this article. Would it not be stupid of people to promote the brand name of an evil scheme intended to manipulate them? It is mentioned here to bring out the extent of deception being perpetrated on innocent people. Again, most people are taken in by such gimmicks.

The database of all people, residing in India, with a unique number allocated to each person, is to be linked to their bank accounts, tax numbers, LPG consumer numbers, ration cards, insurance, health records, pension records and so forth. This is database state control at its worst. It reminds one of the ID cards for Indian indentured labour in apartheid South Africa and the list of Jews in Hitler’s Germany.

The deceitful way in which the UID is promoted is diabolical. UIDAI claims that it is voluntary. Simultaneously, the UIDAI says, “Service-providers could ask for it”. Next, news is put out regularly in media, stating that the UID is being ‘linked’ to LPG, MGNREGS, KYC of banks, and so on. The gullible and the timid, not wanting to be left out of government's largesse rush to enrol in UID.

Finding allies for tall claims

Tall claims of huge savings in subsidy leakages are made through the media. Initially, the UIDAI made these claims. Now it has allies doing it for the Authority. NIPFP in a recent “research study” claimed savings of Rs1.10 lakh crore in subsidy leakages by 2018. A safe bet indeed. Who would remember this, six years from now? It is astounding how a hitherto reputed organisation has fallen for this ploy and sought to justify it with some arithmetic. The so called research is based on government data and the UIDAI's claims.

The NIPFP research avoids mentioning how the UID would be applied in the field to any of these schemes. News had been leaked that "proof of concept" (PoC) studies for LPG and BPL rations were being done. On the LPG PoC, RTI queries receive responses stating that the studies are incomplete, but some news reports hint that the studies are successful. The UID is perhaps, the only project in the world in which PoC studies are undertaken well after the project is underway.

Transparency—UIDAI style

While the UIDAI claims to be transparent and media extols the virtue, RTI replies prove attempts to hide information. To illustrate, in Appendix 1 to this Monograph, are RTI applications seeking copies of UIDAI's contracts with foreign companies and their replies. The UIDAI has refused to provide copies of the contracts.  In a first reply, the UIDAI said that it has signed “Non-disclosure agreements” with the contractors. In another reply, the UIDAI cited Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, which says that information such as trade secrets, or intellectual property, which would compromise the competitive position of third parties need not be disclosed, unless it is in public interest to do so.

It was pointed out that since the contracts have already been awarded and the competitive position of the contractor companies would not be compromised. Further, the proviso to the exception under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, states that information that cannot be denied to Parliament or a state legislature cannot be denied to the public.

In spite of quoting the above proviso in the appeal against refusal, the UIDAI appellate authority has upheld the PIO’s refusal to furnish the information. The RTI applicant has appealed to the CIC. The First appeal also stated that since the expenditure for the contract payments are from the public exchequer, the public is entitled to know the terms of the contract. This too did not impress the UIDAI’s appellate authority.

What has the UIDAI got to hide in these contracts? Everything. These contracts would reveal all. This leads to the question posed on the front cover. Very, very few people know or realize that to be identified as an Indian, a foreign, private company would have to verify and certify that the biometric images stored in their database matches that of the person being identified. Could anything be more insulting to us? The danger to our nation’s security posed by such database control in the hands of foreign private companies is the subject of another article in the monograph.

(Col (Retd.) Mathew Thomas is a former defence services officer and missile scientist turned civic activist, campaigning against state database control of the people.)