[Reader-list] a question?

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Jeebesh and Deal All

Anyone who claims to deliver a unique national identity card to 600
million people in 12-18 months will be quite stressed out about time.
But going the head-lines it seem that this is hardly the case.

 I would like to draw your attention to two news stories on ID cards
which has appeared in last month alone. They appear like copies of
each other as far as its title is concerned. Both these stories can be
accessed through reader-list archives.

Jul 27, 2009 Unique ID numbers in 12-18 months - 169 [
https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2009-July/021133.html ] ,
and on Aug 14 2009 there was a TOI, story,  First lot of Unique ID in
12-18 months- 195 [
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2009-August/021827.html ]

The point being- if even after a month the official response regarding
the time frame is the same then surely something is amiss here.

 I think, someone should ask the relevant people at the good offices
of UIDAI- what is start date for verifying UID numbers? So that we can
start the count down from that too. I certainly am excited to see
whether Nandu and team delivers or not.

I think your observation that UID card is not be a proof of
citizenship could pertain to a TOI news report which appeared on 13th
Aug 2009. [ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/First-lot-of-Unique-ID-in-12-18-months/articleshow/4886915.cms
]

My sense is this- by taking a position that UID number will not be
citizenship document, the GOI is actually demonstrating a deftness of
approach. Of course there are precedents for taking such a line.

Just as the social security number was not intended to be a de jure
identification document or a de jure citizenship document but is now
regarded as de facto and also to a certain extent de jure personal
identification document and a citizenship document, so as, by taking a
line that UID is not a citizenship document the government has come
out clean without getting dirty by stepping into a muddle of fuzzy
notions of citizenship at a legal level but I am sure, in the years to
come a UIDC/UIDN/ MNIC will come handy in identifying citizens and at
the level of practice at least, it will be used to identify citizens.
Or weed out non-citizens from citizens. In other words I think there
is a strong possibility that once this card giving exercise is over
and all the data is centralized, then GOI will start using UIDN as a
marker for citizenship without bothering about the law.

Warm regards

Taha