Aadhar - An enabler of national security

Till now in India, there is no way to verify whether a person is a citizen of the country or not. This is strange, yet true.

There are a number of documents that the government can check to see whether you're an Indian. Driving License, ration card, passport, etc.

I remember watching an NDTV report. The report showed how anyone can create a new identity in India just through some money power. In this report, a person managed to bribe a government servant into giving him a new ration card. With this ration card, he got a driving license, and a lease agreement.

This is what terrorists do. They can easily enter the country illegally, and then settle in India making themselves Indian citizens. Apart from that there are millions of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh whose citizenship cannot be proven not to be Indian.

The end of all these problems will be Aadhar - the UID.

Every person in India will get a unique 12 digit number. Once this number is rolled out to everyone present in the country, new Aadhar numbers can only be created during birth, or when someone acquires Indian citizenship. A suspected terrorist walking on the road can be asked to furbish his Aadhar number, and his Biometric data can be checked to confirm whether he is indeed a citizen.

Many advantages of Aadhar have been cited, but I don't think there is any greater advantage than this.

Not giving citizens an Aadhar number is like not giving university students a Roll-No. It becomes much more difficult to identify them.