South Asia Citizens Web

The aadhaar project, to provide a unique number to all residents in India, was packaged as a welfare-enabling programme. It was sold as an initiative for greater inclusiveness in welfare, a tool against corruption, greater efficiency and so on. Six years down the line, there is mounting evidence of the destruction of welfare programmes due to aadhaar-linkage. Moreover, the aadhaar project has a sinister side to it – it is a surveillance-enabling programme, which threatens privacy and democratic practice.

A civil society forum has been set up to collectively lobby for a transparent registration process to counter the ongoing harassment. NGOs require access to legal aid to deal with attacks from certain segments in the media. There is also a need for other civil society organisations such as the press clubs, labour unions, students’ organisations and bar associations to support NGOs/INGOs. However, most of all, there is an urgent and dire need to stop maligning and forcing civil society to prove its patriotism credentials.

As a freedom fighter I remember, as I we sat glued to a one-band radio, on the evening of December 16 1971, along with others in a guerrilla camp, listening to the surrender ceremony of the Pakistani army to the joint command in Dhaka and shouting “Joy Bangla” (Victory to Bangla), I was certain that my new country would be a place of prosperity, freedom and religious harmony. Never again would a Muslim or a Hindu lose his or her life for religion.

The polarising politics centred on the projection of victimhood and the call for international intervention is not new, the genocide resolution by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) last year was one such instance. However, the Eluga Thamil protest requires careful analysis as it has not only kindled ethno-nationalist emotions, but also put people on the streets without any realistic political path ahead.

via: Pinjra Tod