FIR against Aadhaar whistleblower journalist is a PR disaster for UIDAI

As a child, almost all of us have read Danish author Hans Christian Anderson’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, a tale about a vain king who wanted the best suits of clothes but ended up wearing nothing. However, all his subjects were too scared to point out his sartorial faux paus, until a small child shouted that the king isn’t dressed at all. 

At this moment, the UIDAI looks very much like the fabled king, going after the child who dared to point out a fatal flaw in their system, by filing an FIR against the journalist who showed the gap in the system.

And in doing so UIDAI has just shot itself in its foot, at a time its action is under immense scrutiny, globally with even Edward Snowden keeping track. And instead of focussing on the problem, going after the journalist sends out the wrong message, a horribly-garbled PR message which will need deft damage control politically. 

Keeping aside the politics surrounding Aadhaar – and some of the criticism against it are laughable in this IT age – there’s no denying that such a massive data breach shows a fatal flaw.

FIRs have been filed against The Tribune newspaper and its reporter Rachna Khaira, and also names Anil Kumar, Sunil Kumar and Raj, all of whom were mentioned in the Tribune report.

FIRs filed include IPC Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document), as well Section 66 of the IT Act and Section 36/37 of the Aadhaar Act.

Both The Tribune editor Harish Khare and UIDAI CEO Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey haven’t commented on the FIR yet but simply putting aside all politics, the optics is terrible.

Now, many of the criticism surrounding Aadhaar are surely over-the-top, elitist, liberal  nitpicking that can only come from those pontificating from their ivory towers. 

For example, the issue of scores of villagers sharing the same birthdate stems from the fact that not a lot of people don't have the privilege of knowing exactly when they were born, in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. That however, should not be a reason to stop them from being part of the system. 

Aadhaar has flaws and it has tremendous benefits.

On the bright side, it can weed out terrible wastage, facilitate proper use of resources, get rid of fake beneficiaries, cut down middle-man corruption, improve delivery system and in the long-run increase last-mile connectivity.

However, the concerns over data breach are real and there are scores of legitimate issues that need to be addressed. Its critics include people from across the spectrum including right-wing politician and flamboyant commentator Subramanian Swamy, and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

It is the natural tendency of government to desire perfect records of private lives. History shows that no matter the laws, the result is abuse. https://t.co/7HSQSZ4T3f — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 4, 2018

The Tribune report showed that Rs 500 over Paytm and 10 minutes was all it took their correspondent to acquire a login ID and password.

After the report, UIDAI had categorically denied that there was a ‘data breach’ and all data was ‘fully safe and ‘secure’, and that a display of ‘demographic information cannot be misused without biometrics’.

Biometrics or not, the citizens of India need to know that their private is being stored in a robust system which won’t be sold to the lowest bidder. A a previous DNA edit pointed out: "The importance of Aadhaar has become paramount to an Indian citizen’s life. It virtually defines and legitimises his existence. This overwhelming importance attached to a single piece of document also makes it extremely vulnerable to misuse."

Clubbing the name of the reporter with the rest of the people actually selling data sends a message that the UIDAI, appears far more interested in shooting the messenger than fixing its errors or convincing the citizens of India that their data is safe with them.

Recently, Netflix India trolled UIDAI after the data leak report emerged. It implied a Black Mirror-sque dystopian technology future for India. While that may be a stretch, those who believe that Aadhaar is being built as a surveillance mechanism just got a lot of fodder from UIDAI's illiberal act. The greatest democracy in the world can live without this type of brazen coercion of free speech.  It just weakens the moral legitimacy of Aadhaar. 

Please provide #Aadhaar details for more information. pic.twitter.com/siuuLr1I06 — Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) January 4, 2018