[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-118

[Taha Mehmood]

I may be completely wrong here but I feel that there is an
overwhelming endorsement of MNIC by pivotal institutions like the
Indian State or the mass media or the industry. In this regard one
could read Jeebesh's interpretation of Indian Express's articulation
of social condition emerging out of a possible MNIC regime as
'disquiet' as perhaps a mere journalistic posturing for the sake of
'objectivity'. However, we have people like Debroy (an IE contributor)
who is articulating a cautious approach to MNIC because of scale of
logistics. Internationally if we take the case of UK, for instance,
then policy crowd is slowly showing signs of disinclination towards a
national ID card project because of costs involved and not on the
strength of lofty ideas like privacy. As far as policy indicators in
recent years is concerned, we have seen in India a hardening of
political will around the idea of a NIC. NIC is something which is
endorsed by political parties belonging to left, right and center of
the political spectrum. The right play the 'anti-terror instrument'
card, the left use the 'instrument of just distribution' card while
the center co-opts both.  Therefore it would be quite futile for us to
see any hint of either discourses of illegality of such a mechanism or
for that matter voices of discontent which could cogently articulate a
case against MNIC, emerge from either the political class or from
mass media. I include mass media assuming that it could play the role
of an activist. Like the notion of Individual Privacy, as it is
imagined in the West is perhaps not a big issue in the whole of India,
hence even the privacy argument, which of course stands on its own
merit  and which  of course  is very relevant, may fail to generate
even a minimal threshold of counter chorus. This, I think is more of
an anxiety emanating from educated middling sorts. In addition to that
I do not think the government is serious about the efficacy of MNIC. I
think the government knows that it will not work.  However, I have a
feeling that, the government of India wants to pursue MNIC, maybe
because a tool like MNIC gives a government a lot of leverage to push
polices of redistribution in a manner which could comply to political
exigencies. The purported utility of MNIC regime as an instrument to
collect and collate information based in 'user transactions' and the
concern that it could be subject to some sort of abuse is perhaps
valid but it is systemic, something which we in India has dealt with
for ages. That for me atleast, would be more of a case of re-emergence
of an old disease under seemingly new symptoms. However, given the
tenacity of Indians to find a jugaad for anything I am sure it would
not be long before for this plastic token is also tackled, I am
extremely curious about the nature of such a jugaad, or the terms of
rupture which such a regime could invite.