13 - Mon, 17 May 2010
Hi Rambo:
I would like to respectfully point out to you that if currently any citizen of India has any significant resources (money or land) and or power, then the likely hood of their names currently being on some database is fairly great (credit card, passport, property registration, bank accounts etc). At the same time, if a person is poor, and has little or no resources or power, then they are unlikely to be on any database and most likely of little or no use to those who (Government officials or others) would stand to potentially benefit from them. The Government officials and others who are likely to use any information (from existing databases) they have is likely to target the rich and powerful from whom they can extract what ever they can. It is highly unlikely that they would spend their resources to track down the poor from whom they cannot extract much.
Therefore adding another number by which the government can track a person (of interest to them) is not going to significantly change the current situation. Therefore, Rambo I believe that the efforts and energy that you are putting into this cause is really not worth the actual impact it is likely to have on the citizens of India. It may benefit some institutions more than others, but other than that I do not see any significant and real impact occurring from the introduction of UID. I know that you are genuinely interested in protecting the social fabric of all fellow citizens of India by opposing the implementation of UID. However, for reasons that I have outlined above things are not likely to change much from the introduction of UID system for reason of concern to you.
I am not surprised at the plethora of blogs and articles on the subject, as each person who originates or instigates such blogs have their own personal agenda, beliefs, misinformation or paranoia that motivates them to publish such blogs for their personal gain. Our group (1969 IITM) in my opinion should not assist such groups to further disseminate such propaganda. We are supposed to be the elite and privileged citizens of India, who should be able and have the knowledge and expertise to review the issue with greater objectivity and make comments appropriate to address the real practical and relevant issues that emanate from it.
Joshy Kallungal, IITM
