[Reader-list] UID CARD BENEFIT

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Bipin and Shahidhar,

Thank you for your responses.

Enumeration is fine with me. You count a person, you attach a figure.
Simple and straightforward. Any act of governance needs that. I do not
have a problem with it. Identity is a tricky issue. It's a fuzzy
issue. The word is fuzzy. Is it not vague? Does it not mean many
things? Can it be be categorized by a singular notion?

The GOI is transferring 1.5 Lakh crore rupees in the name of identity.
And Bipin I do not know who can define a unit of measurement of
identity. I am not interested in who. I am not bothered by who. Who
can be tom, dick or harry or a sita or a gita or ram or a rahim for
all I care.

I am interested in How and Why and What. So I would be glad if you
could forgo who and tell me how identity can be measured, by what
means and why those means represent a true measurement of a person's
identity?

Please allow me explain what I mean-

If the pharmacist makes a drug without going into the nature of what
constitutes the elements of that drug, what does that drug do, what
illness can it alleviate and gives that drug to a doctor and the
doctor prescribes that drug to you without diagnosing you, without
verifying the nature of your illness and without establishing whether
this drug is the only drug amongst all the drugs which are available
in a market which can alleviate your illness.

Will you take that drug Bipin? Simply because a doctor of medicine has
given it to you? Will you be so charmed by the packaging of the drug
that you will suspend doubt? Will you be so in awe of man in white
clothes that you will give in because the name tag in front of his
room says MD MBBS?  Or will you allow doubt to enter, Bipin? Think!

In the similar manner, can we not think about the people of India as a
body? Are we not told that some parts of our body are getting weak
because they are not nourished? Are we not prescribed a medicine in
the name of UID? Is it not our responsibility to doubt, both as
individuals and as a collective, to assess whether such a drug is good
or not? Because if it a bad drug it might effect the life of our
entire body which includes you and me Bipin. Who would we blame then,
Bipin. Governments come and go. That's the nature of governance. But
we are here to stay. That's the nature of people.

UID is build on the idea of identity. Identity is a fuzzy notion. It
is a vague idea. It means many things to many people. It might mean
one thing to many people. It might also mean many things to one
person. Or it might mean nothing to no one. or every thing to every
one. In every case the meaning, the nature of identity is
inconsistent. Should we not allow this inconsistency in meaning of
identity to remain?

Warm regards

Taha