The Government has once again launched an identity project under Nandan Nilakeni. The first person to start such a project was the former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan and the project was sabotaged by vested interests. On what is the unique ID going to be issued? Evidently it will be based on existing documents like birth certificates, ration cards, passports, voter cards, PAN cards etc. Now we all know that many fakes are floating around. What the unique ID project must first do is to get a ‘prevention of false identity act’ enacted with a punishment of up to 10 years and perhaps even deny citizenship rights to those with fake cards. The unique ID must have all components of identity — photograph, signature, fingerprint and address. Today no document has all these.
Once the unique ID takes off, all other documents like PAN and voter cards should disappear. Even my passport should have the unique ID as its number. The present passport document number will only be for internal control check. Bank accounts etc should have the unique ID as the customer ID. In other words, an individual need remember just one number for all purposes. But the question is, with so many false certificates and foreigners from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and even Pakistan happily staying here, will vested interests allow a unique identity project to succeed?
T R Ramaswami, Mumbai