In an interesting exchange with a five-member bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the lawyer for UIDAI brought up a number of bizarre arguments, ranging from a 'foreign' conspiracy to derail Aadhaar to Aadhaar's numerical nature being related to the fact that numbers are “beautiful and fascinating.”
The five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, is hearing petitions challenging the need for Aadhaar linking. Senior lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi, who was representing UIDAI, claimed that Google and 'smart' payment card companies were lobbying to ensure that Aadhaar did not succeed as a means of verification of identity. Dwivedi claimed if “Aadhaar succeeded, it would put the smart card companies out of business.” The rhetoric seemed to echo the 'foreign hand' claim that was associated with Indira Gandhi!
When asked by the bench about the risks of data leaks such as the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, Dwivedi said Aadhaar couldn't be compared to how Facebook works as the former did not use machine learning or artificial intelligence and functioned off-line.
When the bench asked why private organisations were allowed to carry out Aadhaar verification, Dwivedi said the Aadhaar Act “does not allow any 'chaiwala' or a 'paanwala' to become a requesting entity (to verify biometric details).”
He explained UIDAI did not provide access to the Aadhaar database to private entities till it was satisfied that such entities needed the access to a government database. To press his argument, Dwivedi claimed that the court could soon hear arguments on how private companies like Reliance were entering the defence sector, which has largely been a preserve of state-run agencies till now.
When the SC asked why UIDAI issued number identity to citizens like Adolf Hitler did in Germany, Dwivedi gave a strange argument, which included the history of numbers in India.
He claimed UIDAI did not seek information like caste, creed or religion from citizens unlike Hitler who segregated his citizens. Dwivedi also added that “history of numbers began in India” and "numbers are beautiful and fascinating."
(With PTI inputs)