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

[taraprakash]

Dear all and Taha. As I said in my earlier mail that I am not speaking as an expert in this matter. Your claims are, I am sure, based on research and my assertions are based on what I think a common sense approach.

My reference to US was not to argue that since US has such a system in place, India too must go for it. I just wanted to maintain that it doesn't have to be a private firm issuing the cards. 
It is in country like ours that we have to prove our identity to demonstrate that we belong  to the country we were born in. As I stated in an earlier mail that sometimes people have to prove that they are actually not dead or that their signifiers have been misappropriated by their relatives. I also said earlier that one multipurpose identity card (may be a passport issued at birth) can make all other identity cards redundant. But since I have all this andd I have nothing new to add, I must not waste the time of the list. Thanks for reading.
Regards
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Taha Mehmood 
  To: taraprakash 
  Cc: Sarai 
  Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 10:28 AM
  Subject: Re: [Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose NationalIdentity Cards-6


  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.