[Reader-list] UK National ID card cloned in 12 minutes

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Murali and Dear All,

The core issue with the way in which they run things in India,
particularly those that relate to Bhumi and its various putras is
this- there is no clear definition of either ma or her betas.

The most strongest argument in favor of UID/MNIC is that, it gives
'Indians' not only a citizenship token but it also accords a unique
number or an unalterable identifier which hopefully all of will carry
from birth till death in near future.

To make that argument more strong the GOI made due changes in the
Citizenship Act. We must appreciate such a demonstration of clear
thinking on behalf of our government.

However, after some reflection it appears that, with UID/MNIC, it's
most strongest, most appealing, it most utilitarian aspect, is also
ridden with its most inherent fault, it most weakest link.

In order to accord a plastic/silicon token to an 'Indian'. Somebody,
somewhere has to KNOW for sure, whether 'x's' claim of being an Indian
is true or not. That KNOW-ledge is unfortunately either there or
either not there or if it is there then it is too fragmented, or, to
use Jeebesh's favorite word, fractal.

So we don't know. Of course we know our chachas, tayas, aur masis and
buas, our bhais and bhabhis but some of the time we may not have
proper records to prove that- they are who they claim to be.

And I hope that you understand that I am not talking here in context
of worthy souls like you or me but I am talking about rather 'US' -the
bhumi- putras/putris/sas/sasurs infact the entire khandaan of mother
India. I am talking about a rather modest figure of twelve thousand
million people here.

The GOI after much hassle completed a pilot project on MNIC. The
problems which arise in documenting individual identities of a mere
twelve lakh individuals, which by the way, took five looooog years to
get complete were many.

These problems come as a lament which a Standing Committee on Home
Affairs laid on the table of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, in its One
hundredth and twenty fourth report, on 20th of March 2007.

The problems enlisted were as follows-

(a) this is the first time that such a project has been undertaken in
the country.

(b) no precedent is available for such a complex project involving
both processes and technology.

(c)  unavailability of data entry operators in regional languages.

(d)   difficulties in capturing of photographs and finger biometrics,
specially for persons who stay outside for employment, study etc.

(e)  power was not available. Diesel Generator sets were to be
arranged from far off places.

(f)  validation of individual data for correct spellings of names and
other attributes.

(g) very cumbersome and tedious process of verification of
citizenship; individuals were not found at their place of residence.

(h)   weak document base for determining citizenship of individuals in
rural areas, specially for agricultural labourers, landless labourers,
married females etc.

(i)  unavailability of officials from State Government for this work.

[ http://164.100.47.5:8080/newcommittee/reports/EnglishCommittees/Committee%20on%20Rules/124threport.htm
]

Total money allocated on identifying twelve lakh people was 130 crore.
This means for roughly every one crore persons the money would be
eight times one thirty or one thousand and forty crore rupees and for
every hundred crore, it will be,  one lakh and forty thousand crore
rupees only.

Do we have this much of spare money, this much of luxury to invest on
a mere plastic token? Do people have any idea what kind of opportunity
cost this money has? What can this kind of money can do to, say,
agriculture? I am sure someone like, Rakesh would probably know what I
am talking about here.

It takes five years to completely identify twelve lakh persons as they
claim to be, this means going by this rate, it may take,  forty years
to identify one crore Indians and almost four thousand years to
identify a hundred crore people.

Nandan Nilekani thinks he can do this job in one year. This means, he
is claiming that he can completely identify almost twenty seven
hundred thousand people in a single day, as they claim to be. And are
we to even believe this trash because he help set-up an IT back
office?

Nandan Nilekani  for whatever his genius, is no God by any measure.

I think, for the sake of public reasoning, all the problems which came
up during the pilot project, and which are available in the public
domain, needs to be looked into, with the seriousness it rightfully
deserves, by one and all.

That includes people like YOU and me, Sir!!

And mind you this is not the first time that the government of India
is embarking on a historical adventure of measurement.

Just as in the March of 2001, there was a sense of historical
adventure, in the offices of the Registrar General of India, New
Delhi,  when the pilot project to measure citizenship status of a mere
twelve hundred people (MNIC) was announced, so as, in April 1802,
exactly a hundred years before that, there was a sense of historical
adventure in the offices of Geographical Society of India, Calcutta,
as the grand idea, the big idea, back then, was to get a geographical
measure of India.

If back then it was a measure of a geographical identity of India,
then now, it is a question of the measurement of Individual identity
of Indians.

Just as Nandan sahib says, rather confidently, that in one years time
all Indians will have a UID number and in a decade's time hopefully
every Indian will a national identity card, back then it was William
Lambton who was carrying the measuring tape.

Lambton like Nilekani was a technocrat. Skilled mathematician. And a
great netwoker. completely devoted to the cause. He knew, like Nandan
does, that what he doing now will change how people will relate to
each other in future.

Lambton told his bosses that it will take him just under five years to
complete the task. It is another story that after GSI completed it's
operations, SIXTY years had passed.

So the idea of our bharat ma, your mamma and mine too, our beloved
mother India, came to be visualized as such, with its form and its
contours only a hundred years back. And since then it has changed it's
form, it's contours many times over.

The point being, it is okay for people, like Lambton and Nilekani to
make claims, it is okay for them to say any thing, it is okay for them
to project certain images but are we to take any word as given, as a
final yes or no?

The point being that we must be thankful to the officers of East India
Company, like Lambton and George Everest, for letting us know how our
Bharat mamma really looks like, but with regards to UID/MNIC,  don't
we already know how we look like and who we are?

So what's the big need, the big hurry, to embark on this project?

Or are we so insecure with our selves that we not only need to carry
more bits of molded plastic in our purses but also we need strange
alphanumeric codes to exactly know who we are, or how we must relate
to each other?

Warm regards

to you and everyone else

from

Taha

( and thankfully not from some 0799112BXXY80LKZ  )