Tracking Aadhaar

Book review of 'Aadhaar: A biometric history of India's 12-digit revolution'

Aadhaar

A biometric history of India’s 12-digit revolution

Shankkar Aiyar

Westland Publication Ltd 

266 pages; Rs 260

Among those T-shirts sold on India’s footpaths, there is one which is particularly funny. It says: “Come to India. A billion people cannot be wrong!” By that logic, there should be no debate about Aadhaar. As of June, over 1.15 billion people have already agreed to be part of a database which holds the fingerprints and iris scans of individuals so that when the time comes it is possible for the government to ascertain that a person is truly who he says he is (of course, just materially, not philosophically). But notwithstanding this overwhelming coverage, there are still many in this country who question Aadhaar’s existence for multiple reasons. 

For some, it was the lack of legal backing that robs Aadhaar of legitimacy. Even today, the so-called Aadhaar Act has to live with the ignominy of having been pushed as a money Bill, circumventing broader debate in the Rajya Sabha — rather ironic for an Act which is sold as one that brings about inclusion. For others, there is growing concern about privacy. There is no data protection law in the country and the constitutional position of a right to privacy (which at different times has posed as a fundamental right without ever actually being enumerated as such in the Constitution) is currently being debated in the Supreme Court. Yet another count for dismissing Aadhaar is that it, far from its promise of inclusion, actually leads to exclusion of the needy from welfare schemes. A press conference on Tuesday essentially reiterated how Aadhaar often enough is impeding welfare delivery instead of helping it. The last category of dissenters are those who question Aadhaar on the grounds of civil liberties. They vociferously resent the government making Aadhaar mandatory for everything from death certificates to driving licences, especially for citizen entitlements such as subsidised foodgrain and point to India’s steady slide into what might one day become a surveillance state. Of course, these are not watertight compartments and there are many who oppose Aadhaar on multiple counts.

If you belong to one of these categories, chances are that Shankkar Aiyar’s book will disappoint you. That’s because it fails to address these burning issues in depth. For the first 100 pages, the book narrates the story of how Aadhaar came into existence, who were the protagonists and how did they deal with the early challenges, especially the technical ones. There are anecdotes about how Aadhaar came to be called Aadhaar and how seasoned bureaucrats and young technocrats found it hard to get along initially. However, the book misses out on possible details that could have made a reader appreciate what went into achieving such a huge database. For those who have followed Aadhaar’s journey, there is little surprise in what they read. But at least in the first 100-odd pages the book concentrates on the people who were working on Aadhaar. 

After that, however, the author focusses increasingly on the political developments. It reads more like a “political” history than a “biometric” one. From chapter 5 (Law and political order) onwards, the book is a recap of how the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance floundered, while Mr Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party rose in stature as a political force. Of course, the author keeps showing how the changing political equations affected Aadhaar but this treatment is skeletal. For instance, it is a well-known fact that the Congress and the BJP swapped their positions on Aadhaar just as they swapped their positions in the Lok Sabha. In fact, as a chief minister and a candidate for the prime ministerial post in 2014, Mr Modi was very vocal about his criticism of Aadhaar, calling it a “political gimmick”. It is noteworthy, in this regard, that although the author only highlighted the “irony” in the Congress’ U-turn, while having nothing to say about the BJP.

Still there are two interesting stretches in this book. One, which details how and why Mr Modi decided to embrace Aadhaar — it was after a presentation by Ram Sevak Sharma, currently chairman of the telecom regulator, who had served as the first CEO of UIDAI. The other section that is of interest is the epilogue where the author finally attempts to deal with the reservations people have about Aadhaar in some detail. Far from the mildly celebratory tone of the book, the epilogue focusses on unflattering reports about Aadhaar. There is almost an acceptance that without a strong privacy law, even the present supporters of Aadhaar might have a tough time justifying it. There is acceptance that it is difficult to rule out how technology and hacking may affect such a database Most importantly, there is an acceptance that Aadhaar cannot be the one-shot solution to India’s governance problems. 

As for the hovering fear of a surveillance state, the UIDAI has probably done well to choose a logo showing “a sun in red and yellow, with a fingerprint traced across” its centre. One can only imagine how much worse would things have been had they chosen a pair of eyes staring at you!