[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose NationalIdentity Cards-6

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Taraprakash,

Thank you for your mail.

Let me begin by saying that I respect your perspective. If you think and
feel that we need identity cards on a day to day basis then I think you are
rightfully entitled to that opinion. I think you rightly mentioned that
'identity certifies the relationship between the the signifier and the
signified' however I feel slightly uncomfortable with all assertions which
suggest that we must do things because somebody else have done.

Why? I ask.

Even in America social security numbers and driving licenses were originally
just that- social security numbers and driving licenses. It took years
before the government of US started using these certificates as identity
cards. In the UK national identity cards were introduced during the Second
World War but the Government had to let go of them because of immense public
pressure.

The people of US and UK are still not convinced about the durability of a
national identity card. The primary reason being that it seems that the
people of these countries still share a healthy skeptical relationship with
their Governments. Don't you think that any democracy should foster
skepticism and questioning. Further more, even in these highly advanced
super modern societies the State finds itself incapable of ensuring the
safety of the data. Please read the story below for more.
(The £5.4 billion national identity card plan is being postponed...
following high-profile data breaches from various government departments.
http://www.itpro.co.uk/159060/conservatives-claim-id-card-delay)

In America, 'the mecca of privatization' according to you, although the REAL
ID scheme is passed by the Senate, many in that country feel that the scheme
is a  REAL 'mess'. Please read the story below for more-
(Why the 'Real ID' Act is a real mess-
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/12/ramasastry.ids/index.html)
Given the tone and tenor of Obama's rhetoric I for one will not be surprised
at all if the new administration decides to reconsider the Real ID act
scheme.

I think that we in India must not hesitate before asking basic, fundamental
questions about identity, because if you just look around all the burning
issues in India today seem to be clustered around notions of identity. At
the socio-political level it is articulated in terms of communal and
religious identity, (you know Hindu v/s Muslim v/s Christian etc. etc ) or
at socio- economic level it often appears in the form of contest or
negotiation (for instance the Gujjar Issue or the recent un-rest in
Maharastra). One wonders how the National Identity card scheme will effcet
all these issues? or For that matter, in what ways will a condensed identity
of an Indian Citizen will play itself out in the public domain, in years to
come.

The question is not whether we must go for an identity card or not, because
if have an identity card then I will too have one in addition to a voter ID
card, a driving license, a PAN card, a ration card and a Passport that I
already have, the question is Why we must have a identity card?or  What
justifies the transfer of what many believe to be 27,000 crore rupees of
public money to just carry out the survey, verify each and every one of us,
print and distribute cards. The cost of maintaince is additional to this
bill. or What are the ways in which the data so gathered by such an exercise
will be used? or What is the mechanism with which this data will be
accessed? Who will access this data to do what? What sort of policies will
emerge from this data? or Will the survey, verification and distribution be
just?

Warm Regards

Taha







On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 4:08 AM, taraprakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Taha and all. i find myself not capable of considering this issue from
> a negative perspective, therefore unfit to carry forward this discussion.
> All I know is that most of us use some kind of identity proof on day to day
> basis. I am neither a poet or a philosopher to be able to delve in to
> various facets of identity. I personally believe that you are given a name
> by the society and you are given a more or less distinctive facade by the
> nature. A proof of identity certifies the relationship between the the
> signifier and the signified. That there are loopholes in the system cannot
> be the sole reason for rejecting the identity cards. And no they don't have
> to be private agencies issuing the identity cards. Even in the mecca of
> privatization, the state identity cards and driving licences are issued by
> government agencies. The individual states in the United States issue state
> id cards to those who cannot drive. Otherwise their driving license is the
> state id. I would think that rather than begging the state several times for
> passport, ration card, pan card, voters id card etc one card can be issued.
> India and other countries in the subcontinent are not the best at keeping
> records but things are changing. They must change if they are not.
>
>