There is a lot of confusion about the Aadhaar Card among large sections of people.  What does the CPI(M) feel about attempts by the Modi government to make the possession of the Aadhaar card mandatory?

THE CPI(M) had taken a clear position against making the Aadhar card mandatory.  It was of the opinion that such a step would actually exclude millions from the benefits of government schemes and programmes.  The CPI(M) was clear that while the government was promoting its use in the name of transparency, ending of corruption etc, its real intention was to keep large sections of the poor from the purview of its own programmes.
Our Party’s stand has been upheld by the ground realities of the ways in which the Aadhar card is being made  mandatory for access to government schemes.  As of today, according to the official figures, altogether 105,08,06,394 Aadhar cards have been issued.  This is less than 10 percent of the total population of the country.  Even if only adults are counted, more than 60 percent of the adult population remains without Aadhar cards.  To this must be added the fact that the government is repeatedly carrying out ‘weeding out’ exercises in the name of bogus card-holders and many more are excluded in the process.  It can be safely said that those excluded belong to the poorer sections of society and migrants ie, those who are in the greatest need of access to government programmes.
A petition was moved in the Supreme Court against the government’s effort and on October 15, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that Aadhar was purely voluntary but extended its use to schemes like the MNREGA, all pension schemes, employee provident fund, PM Jhan Dhan Yojana etc.  Earlier, in August, the Supreme Court had restricted the Aadhar use only to PDS and LPG distribution.  Despite the Court insisting on the ‘voluntary’ nature of Aadhar use, in practice the use is now mandatory as far as all these schemes are concerned.  The complete disregard with which the central government is treating the court’s restrictions has been brought to the fore by the fact that the UGC has made it ‘mandatory for disbursements of all government subsidies, scholarships and fellowships’ for the financial year 2016-17 in a letter sent to all vice-chancellors of universities and institutes.
It is, therefore, clear that the government is pushing ahead with its agenda of exclusion of the poor and needy from all the schemes that they desperately need for survival and a better future.  While this is a very important reason for the CPI(M)’s opposition to the scheme, it is not the only one.
In the world today sharing of data regarding a wide range of details about individual citizens is invaluable to both intelligence agencies and the corporate sector.  These details are used by them for surveillance and also for targeted marketing.  It is extremely dangerous to our national security that the Aadhar infrastructure has been provided and is being maintained by foreign corporations with close links to the defence and intelligence establishment of the USA.  The government has not been at all forthcoming about revealing the details of the agreements signed with these corporations and is certainly guilty of violating principles of national security.
Finally, it has been found time and again that the kind of biometric identification carried out by the Aadhar card process is not foolproof.  In fact, it is highly unreliable.  Any eye problem can bring about changes that would make identification impossible.  Similarly, hard labour can and does change fingerprints.  
In conclusion, the CPI(M) feels strongly that the Aadhar card process is being used by the government to exclude the poor from the purview of government schemes, that it is a faulty and inefficient procedure and that it is a grave threat to national security.