Daily Archives: July 17, 2011


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R. Ramakumar, Associate Professor with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, writes in The Hindu comparing India’s ID card project with the last Labour governments’: Two countries. Two pet projects of the respective Prime Ministers. Unmistakable parallels in the discourse. “The case for ID cards is a case not about liberty, but about the modern world,” wrote Tony Blair in November 2006, as he was mobilising support for his Identity Cards Bill, 2004. “Aadhaar…is symbolic of the new and modern India,” said Manmohan Singh in September 2010, as he distributed the first Aadhaar number in Nandurbar. “What we are trying to do with identity cards is make use of the modern technology,” said Mr. Blair. “Aadhaar project would use today’s latest and modern technology,” said Dr. Singh. The similarities are endless. Mr. Blair’s celebrated push for identity cards ended in a political disaster for Labour. The British people […]

Aadhaar: on a platform of myths