Aadhaar plan will lead to ‘surveillance state’: Opposition

New Delhi: The Opposition on Monday accused the Modi government of trying to push crony capitalism, weaken the federal structure, giving unflinching power to Income-Tax authority and impinging on the fundamental rights of its citizens by trying to make Aadhaar card mandatory. Opposition party members in the Rajya Sabha alleged it was “arrogance of power” that the government was trying to link Aadhaar with tax filing when even the Supreme Court had said that Aadhaar was not mandatory. Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha will discuss on Wednesday the issue of Aadhaar being made mandatory for various services and schemes.

Initiating a debate in the Upper House on the Financial Bill, Congress’s Kapil Sibal attacked the government for failing to generate jobs or help farmers. For the government, development only means the development of its “communal agenda”, he claimed.

Questioning government’s move to use Aadhaar for filing tax returns, he said it amounted to snooping into people’s lives and the Prime Minister and the finance minister had earlier raised concern over the use of the unique identity number when the BJP was in Opposition.

Taking a dig at the BJP-led dispensation, he said some people in this government may have “the experience in snooping” and added that this also showed BJP’s “double talk”. He said the government’s move to remove the cap on contributions that companies could make to political parties amounts to crony capitalism and it wants corporates to contribute to the “kitty of the ruling party”.

Mr Sibal alleged that a provision to amend the Companies Act was “surreptitiously brought in the garb of the Finance bill” and to muffle the voice of the Upper House. He said the “unbridled power” to tax authorities through the provisions of the Finance Bill would create “an atmosphere of fear” in the minds of business people as Income-Tax officers will now not need to disclose the reason to suspect.

CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury said the bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha “in a hurry” and the government had tried to undermine the Constitution by “smuggling in non-financial matters in the bill”. He said there have been references to Goebbels and Himmler, but the current government had put “all of them to shame” in the way they were undermining the parliamentary system.

Mr Yechury said the Aadhar card is leading to a “surveillance state” in the country and is impinging on the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and asked the government to bring a bill if it wants to make it compulsory.  

BSP’s Satish Chandra Misra said various amendments proposed under the Finance Bill should have been brought separately so that the members could have discussed in issues in detail.