Seems that every person in India is to be issued a twelve digit identification number which would serve as proof of identity for various transactions. No identity card will be issued, just a number which each person will have to remember. Even for the Congress it seems a breathtakingly stupid idea. According to Mr. Nandan Nilekani who is head of the program, named Aadhar, this will not be a proof of citizenship but just a proof of identity. Already educated Indians are forced to carry many photo identities for instance passports, driving licenses, PAN cards, voter identity cards to name a few. On top of this we will now have to remember a twelve digit number as proof of identity. This is apparently because poor people have no identity cards and hence lack access to public services. Prints of all ten fingers and iris scans of every person, including children older than five, will go into the data base and will be accessible online. What happens to people who are blind, have corneal opacities or have lost both their arms? What about people of low intelligence who are unable to remember their number? What if a person with low intelligence has five children, how will he or she remember so many numbers? Possibly such a person could get someone to write to write it on a piece of paper keep it near all the time. What if a terrorist or a criminal steals a number and uses it to get a cell phone how will the original person prove his innocence? Perhaps a few years later a person's number will be tattooed on his skin just as the Nazis used to do. Numbers in our own country and no one is protesting. Disgusting, freeloading press.