The central government got a massive boost after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act. The court was satisfied with the data security mechanism of the Aadhaar and also came to the conclusion that the Aadhaar Act cannot be seen as a means of surveillance. It also held that the Aadhaar Act cannot said to be a violation of the right to privacy and that reasonable rights can be imposed on privacy. And that the objective behind the Aadhaar scheme is to ensure that the benefits of the social schemes initiated by the government reach the target population. Therefore, the Supreme court has clearly vindicated the stand of the Modi government.
This verdict implies that the government will still be able to keep using Aadhaar in connection with subsidies and schemes for the marginalised sections of the society. This clearly defeats those who had been opposing the Aadhaar and were spreading baseless apprehensions against the scheme. While Aadhaar is meant to plug leakages and ensure that benefits of the government schemes reach the target population, certain so called intellectuals, academicians and politicians were fear mongering that the UID is an instrument of surveillance and also denies the benefits of social schemes.
A particular section of the society, especially “activists” who also happen to be a part of the elitist social strata claimed that UID would enable the government to keep track of the private life of every individual. Many misplaced apprehensions surfaced and it was alleged that Aadhaar linkage will allow the government in determining where someone is going, if someone checked into a particular hotel, ideology of an individual, his/ her sexual orientation, medical issues, so on and so forth. However, these apprehensions are misplaced for the simple reason that no government can possibly keep track of a billion and a quarter people through a database even if it wanted do. And as far as keeping track of certain eminent individuals is concerned, all governments, present and past, have been capable of doing so with or without UID.
Another argument advanced by this section of citizens opposing the UID was that compulsory Aadhaar linkage with poverty alleviation and subsidies schemes would hurt the poor. However, this is again a misplaced apprehension, the fact remains that the government has not in any manner denied the benefit of any scheme to the poor. The objective behind mandatory Aadhaar linkage was to make sure that the benefits of poverty alleviation schemes reach the poor and do not get leaked elsewhere. It is a mere myth that Aadhaar disentitles the poor, in fact, Rs. 75,000 cr have already been sent in poor people’s Aadhaar linked bank accounts and 10 crore Aadhaar linked LPG connections have also been delivered. This proves that UID is not an instrument of disentitlement but an instrument of empowerment. This is primarily the reason why the poor or the deprived classes are not protesting against the UID. Opposition of UID is limited to the elitist sections and the so called activists who think that the poor are not capable of speaking about their own rights.
The opponents of UID have been comprehensively defeated with the Supreme Court verdict vindicating the centre’s stand. However, what is to be seen is whether this will settle the controversy or the opponents will still find some excuse to target the government over the issue. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has already started celebrating the Supreme court verdict as if the Aadhaar Act has been held unconstitutional. It is clear that the leftist liberal cabal is not going to give up. They are either going to deliberately misinterpret the Supreme court verdict or find some other make believe cause to criticize the government over this issue.
