Big Brother or Santa Claus, that is the question.

A study by economists based in the US showed how Aadhaar cards improved delivery of services to the poor in Andhra Pradesh. Aadhaar is an identity card which will be forced on every citizen of India. It has the name, date of birth, father's name, address, prints of all 10 fingers and scans of both the irises. As such it is an extremely intrusive identity card. The study found that there was 12.2% drop in leakages in delivering pensions and MGNREGA payments. The cost of providing Aadhaar cards for the 19 million people in the study was $4.25 million while saving $38.7 million in the MGNREGA scheme, by reducing pilferage, and $4.44 in saving time. All very wonderful no doubt but it does not support the conclusion by the authors that everyone should be forced to carry the card. The middle and upper classes in India receive nothing from the government in return for the vast sums of taxes that we pay throughout our lives. But surely social schemes should be targeted at the poor who need help? Why waste money on the middle class who can fend for themselves? The Prince of Wales in Britain was given a free bus pass on his sixtieth birthday although he is extremely wealthy and owns a fleet of cars. Anyone who has contributed to National Insurance receives a State Pension and prescription drugs become free for all pensioners. In the US every pensioner is eligible for Medicare while Medicaid is targeted at the poor. The Supreme Court has said that receiving benefits cannot depend on possessing the card and a sting operation by a news channel showed how people of neighboring countries were being issued these cards on paying bribes. Supporters say that the objectives of Aadhaar is " to universalise identity proof and to use it to plug leakages." And therein lies the problem. Why should we, who do not receive anything from the government, need to have an intrusive identity card? Is this an attempt to set up a police state as in George Orwell's book 1984 where Big Brother always knows everything about you? On 26 February the Mumbai High Court ordered UIDAI in Goa to provide Aadhaar details to the CBI in a rape case. So, unknown to us everyone with similar names could end up in police files as having been investigated for a heinous crime. Also this is the typical divide and rule used by our politicians to win elections. Tax the middle class to extinction to provide handouts to certain sections. Reserve seats in education and jobs based on caste and tribes. The argument is not that it will help the poor and save money but why we, the middle class, should be forced to have one. Can we trust the villains?