[Reader-list] Do we really want a National Identity Card in India?

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Jeebesh,

Thank you for a very thoughtful mail. I think after reading your mail, I
was, as always, forced to rethink about the ways in which I have clustered
my thoughts around the information regime. I will try to respond to your
conceptual trajectories in an appropriate manner.

1. I do not think that information regime and bio-metric forms of
identification are -difficult and troubling-. Here, more than the question
of 'difficulty and troubling' I think it is important for 'us' to invest
more in articulating who 'our and us' is. I take my daily life as an
example. I need the use of debit cards, library cards, access cards, travel
cards,  to make my life easy. They are an undeniable part of my everyday
existence. I cannot imagine my life to exist in an environment where these
cards are not there. The claims of efficiency and utility which an
information regime throws up within a market based framework are to an
extent valid claims. The problem in this case is an ethical problem. When
these market forces start to sort out information to become more efficient
and create processes which would generate more income for a corporate. The
sorting of information entails social sorting of the end consumer. And this
is where the debate is more or less poised. How do we articulate this social
sorting, what frame work should be used and why? The next important aspect
is how should this debate be articulated from the perspective of one who is
NOT a part of this information regime. In this regard, I am of course making
an argument for a validity of an epistemological enterprise regarding the
information regime. I am myself not sure about the hows, whys and
wheretofores, if we tread in this direction.

2. What you term us 'social surplus' of security regimes is perhaps a purely
economic surplus which is extended to create a synthetic social distance. It
is only in early nineties that we see a marked rise in security apparatus in
India. That, this period was also hypenated by crony capitalism and
evolution of highly speculative money markets cannot be denied. In this
sense I think more than just a 'social surplus' the equation has more
variables in terms of rise of speculative thinking, risk as an idea gaining
unprecedented social currency, and the hedging of this risk in an
increasingly volatile world, acquiring both material and non-material forms.


3. I would rather regard your two axis as utopias- 'Development without
dissent' and 'Terror as security' . I would term these as ideal conditions
within which  a highly speculative money would love to play its little game
of hide and seek. The rise of authoritarian capitalism in Russia, China and
the UAE is a symptomatic of these utopias. I am not sure that whether we can
with undue haste apply these two axis in an Indian scenario. Precisely
because of the presence of a rather fractured narrative of unbridled
capitalism in India. We have seen that especially how in the last fifty
years or so the powers that be have tried to apply these models/narratives
but with limited success.

4. With respect to the use of fear as an undeniable alternative to the
notion of -lure- which the market resorts to- I think you are right but to a
certain extent because the obvious difference between registering for a
credit card and getting a voter identity card lies in the positionality of
the self vis-a-vis the institution. In the case of a credit card one
registers because of a plethora of reasons- utility, ease, social status
etc...the self is often drawn to the banking institution to register itself.
In case of the State- what options does it have apart from doling out social
benefits and if one is not poor enough then using the *conspicuous phantom *of
punishment... The challenge of 'us' then is to articulate this discourse not
by excluding the most obvious conceptual categories like fear, lure, social
status, social sorting etc but to use them in such a manner that it produces
perhaps a meaningful metaphor which makes sense or leads to a rippling
effect wherein one can take information regime, not in an abstracted manner
(you know through a discourse of modernity, privacy, social categorisation
etc) but as a part of a larger social churning.

Regards

Taha


On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:36 AM, Jeebesh <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:

> dear Taha,
>
> Agreed that the new information regime and bio metric forms of
> identification will be a difficult and troubling thing in our daily
> life. But my only caution is that we need to look beyond hyper claims
> beyond these methods and technologies. The Election I Card was such a
> big multi crore project and made it's initiator (Mr.Sheshan) a
> national figure for few days. Now it has passed into the document
> folder of identification (9 documents are allowed for voting - see
> text below), and it's initiators stands forgotten.
>
> The drive to consume huge amount of social surplus on security and
> identification has it's limits. It will reach a deadend soon. If a
> neighbourhood has to spend half it's inhabitants resource on security
> and identification procedure it will go bust and implode inward. Same
> i guess will operate at bigger levels. The fear-hype around these
> drives are to build a consensus around it. Security services,
> surveillance technologies, identification software all are
> beneficiaries and so they will invest on this hyper fear-hype.
>
> The two present axis of rule - Development without Dissent and Terror
> as Security will find some supporters and vocal demagogues. May even
> get a consolidated time of State access. But it will run into grave
> difficulty and it's social cost will be too high. Ofcourse who will
> bear the cost will always be specific. But this time around the costs
> will be much more distributed.
>
> Maybe we need to find a way to discuss these development from a
> vantage point that does not accelerate the fear-quotient of these
> processes.
>
> warmly
> jeebesh
>
> ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA
> Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110 001.
> No. 3/4/ID/2008/J.S.II/(TP)
> Dated: 16-02-2008
>
> "I am directed to enclose herewith Order dated 16-02-2008 regarding
> identification of electors at the current general election to Tripura
> Legislative Assembly. The
> Commission has directed that all electors in each of the 60 Assembly
> Constituencies shall
> bring the EPIC when they come for voting. Those who fail to bring EPIC
> can be identified
> by means of the photographs on the electoral rolls. In the case of
> those electors whose
> identity cannot be established by means of the photograph on the
> electoral rolls, the identity
> shall be established by means of any of the NINE alternative documents
> prescribed following
> certain procedures enumerated in the said Order." (emphasis mine)
>
>
> http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:cpirKEgTZcUJ:www.eci.gov.in/CurrentElections/tripura_ins/ins_200208.pdf+Documents+valid+for+voting+in+election+in+india&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=safari
> On 12-Nov-08, at 11:30 AM, Taha Mehmood wrote:
>
> > Dear all,
> >
> > This is to let you know that the GOI has sanctioned 300 crores for
> > preparing
> > a national population register. This amount is however the tip of the
> > iceberg. As the actual cost of the National ID complete with a
> > digital smart
> > card and other backup infrastructure will cost a huge amount of
> > money. NXP
> > or Next Experience a company which is wholly owned by Phillips has
> > opened
> > its shop in India anticipating major tenders.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Taha
> >
> >
> >
> > http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=oct2208/at01
> >
> >
> > *Rs 300 cr for national population register*
> > Spl correspondent
> > NEW DELHI, Oct 21 – Following reports of illegal migrants trying to
> > enrol
> > themselves as Indian citizens, the Centre is mulling a National
> > Population
> > Register (NPR). Planning Commission has sanctioned Rs 300 crore for
> > the
> > Project in the 11th plan. The Centre has, meanwhile, completed the
> > pilot
> > project on Multi-purpose national identity cards (MNIC) in March. The
> > Government has distributed 12 lakh identity cards in the selected
> > areas in
> > 12 States including border districts of Assam and Tripura. MNIC
> > centre would
> > remain functional till March 2009 for maintenance and up dating of the
> > database and issuing identity cards.
> >
> > Minister of State for Home Affairs, Dr Shakeel Ahmed said that there
> > is a
> > proposal to create National Population Register (NPR) by collecting
> > information on specified items of each resident along with population
> > enumeration at the time of next decennial Census in 2011.
> >
> > The preparatory work for NPR has been initiated, Dr Ahmed said.
> >
> > Solution to the vexed foreigners problem of Assam is now tied up
> > with up
> > dating of the National Register of Citizens. The modalities for
> > updating the
> > NRC are currently pending clearance of the Home Ministry.
> >
> > The Government of India has, meanwhile, sanctioned construction of
> > 3407 km
> > of fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border, out of which 2627 km,
> > (77 per
> > cent), has been completed and the remaining work is scheduled to be
> > completed by March, 2010, Selvi said.
> >
> > The BSF has apprehended 21,399 illegal infiltrators since 2005 on the
> > Indo-Bangladesh border, the Minister added.
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>