The honeyed words of political repression.

The Goods and Services Tax bill, which is supposed to help all the people by uniting the whole country into a single market, has taken years of debate and objections to become law. There are still a lot of hurdles before it becomes operational. Manufacturing states fear a loss of revenue because the tax will accrue at the point of consumption, so states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat may see a fall in their share of indirect taxes. Companies will see a huge increase in paperwork which will add to costs, which they will pass on to consumers. There is no consensus on amending our labor laws which are so restrictive that companies are loathe to employ any worker directly and depend on contract workers to run their factories. The Land Acquisition Act is a hindrance to most infrastructure projects but there is great obstruction to any amendment. Curiously, there has been no debate on the Aadhar bill which was sneaked in as part of the money bill in this year's budget. Which meant that the bill did not have to ratified by the Rajya Sabha, where the government is in minority, and was passed by a simple vote in the Lok Sabha, where the government has a solid majority. Aadhar is an identity card, based on a full face photograph, prints of all 10 fingers and iris scans of both eyes. It was the brainchild of the previous Congress regime and was enthusiastically taken up by this BJP government. Why? The government insists that it is only for those who receive subsidies from the government, such as MGNREGA or subsidised cooking gas but is surreptitiously making it mandatory. Why? We, the educated middle class, receive nothing from the government - no old age pension, no healthcare and no income support. Why are we being forced to get this pernicious card when the Supreme Court opined that Aadhar is to be purely voluntary? Banks are insisting on Aadhar card to open accounts and the Railways internet booking site is now insisting on Aadhar. So brazen are the politicians that they are pressuring Google and Apple to incorporate Aadhar recognition technology, which will make us easy prey to political repression. This is the worst kind of police atrocity, that the Stasi would have been proud of. Yet there are no howls of indignation from the media, no shouting by the opposition in parliament and an abject acceptance by the people. Meanwhile banks looted people of Rs 1.5 trillion in 7 years by selling inappropriate insurance products and mutual funds looted $350 million in 22 months through hidden fees. Those who have money are already making arrangements to beat the system. Big companies are researching ways of shifting to blockchains, such as Bitcoin. Since these are digital they will be out of Aadhar. Politicians will join them there. We will remain in the net.