Not really. He means that govt cannot force every citizen to undergo iris scan etc. for obtaining Aadhar card. I would like to get Aadhar without iris scan (and am willing to let go of secondary benefits like LPG subssidy etc). Such an option doesn't exist as of today. I, as an individual, will exercise my right to privacy by deciding whether to give my biometrics or not. Govt should not decide on my behalf.

An Aadhar card is just an identity document. You don't have to get one if you don't want any benefits linked to it. Just use some other ID.

Having a bank account from a non-government entity is not a benefit provided by the government. Yet, the government has issued notifications to link all bank accounts with Aadhaar or have the accounts indefinitely suspended.

Having a mobile number from a non-government entity is not a benefit provided by the government. Yet, the government's Department of Telecom (DoT) issued a notification asking all telcos to verify their subscribers using Aadhaar.

There are many other cases where the government has blatantly violated the Supreme Court orders that Aadhaar shall remain voluntary and that nobody shall be denied a benefit for want of having it.

Is this like the US and the SSN, which was originally only meant for social security, but is now used for anything and everything and many systems require it if you want to do business at all, even though the business isn't related to social security at all?

It's slightly similar, but a lot more dangerous since it has biometrics attached to it (ten fingerprints and two iris scans). There are no data privacy laws in India, and if someone faces misuse or loss or harm caused by this, they cannot even sue the other party because the legal act (Aadhaar Act) gives the right to sue only to the issuing authority (UIDAI). And UIDAI has a very poor track record of punishing the criminals and instead goes after those who point to flaws in the system.

And I agree with you this is overreaching and people must oppose this. Watering down the requirements for Aadhar is not a good solution.

There are already "benefit" cards like LPG card, ration card, BPL card, etc to get those benefits. Why bother with Aadhar then? The answer is, consolidation. Aadhar is meant to be the identity card. I don't want to carry big passport book, etc. wherever I go.

That consolidation, when combined with biometrics, means you can never get it replaced. Your only recourse to identity theft with your biometrics, or the fact that biometric error rates are very high, is to just live with it.

PAN card and Drivers license already works, bank passbook all works as identitification document. You don't need passport for that.

Yeah I agree and understand what you are saying but this does not contradict what I said earlier in any way.

I would suggest you study the fallibility of biometrics and the associated problems of incorrect identification before looking at dual or multiple indentities. There's a wealth of information on Rethink Aadhaar as well as Scroll's Identity project. So far, the corecion on having an Aadhaar number has resulted in millions of people not getting their entitlements and many also dying because of that. On the other hand, corruption and fraud, like quantity fraud, have nothing to do with identifying genuine beneficiaries. If anything, the coercion of Aadhaar has made it easier for middle-persons to steal more, even by claiming that a genuine verification of identity hasn't worked and hence the person is not entitled to food (which these people then steal).

If one is looking at solving problems of theft, there are other bigger places to look at and plug "leaks" instead of oppressing the poorest of the poor.

Biometrics, unlike passwords, cannot be replaced or changed if leaked. And people leave their fingerprints in many places, and iris scans have been easily and trivially captured with photos. [3] The system used in India is the actual biometrics of the person that doesn't allow any kind of replacement (there are ways to create variable biometrics).

Error rates of biometrics are also too high to ignore on a population the size of India. In environments with a smaller number of people, biometrics may help in uniquely identifying people.

[1]: https://rethinkaadhaar.in

[2]: https://scroll.in/topic/38792/identity-project

[3]:https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/29/german_minister_fin...

This sounds similar to the arguments Facebook/Zuckerberg were making when "internet".org got the boot from India.

"What about the poor people??"

What they really meant was: "We shouldn't allow poor people to escape our surveillance"