Aadhaar case

kept quiet all this while, it is simply because Kollywood is dominated by men and she could in no way have prevailed against an influential man like Vairamuthu.

However, the observation by the writer that the #Metoo campaign will ruin normal behavioural relations between men and women is noteworthy.

KANGAYAM R. NARASIMHAN

CHENNAI

THE Supreme Court’s judgment on September 26 in the Aadhaar case validated the constitutionality of the Aadhaar scheme and Act and exposed the damage that has been caused to citizens’ rights to privacy, dignity and civil liberties (Cover Story, October 26).

In a way the judgment was beyond the comprehension of the common man; no wonder, there was no reaction to it of the magnitude it warranted. Instead of bringing a sense of finality to the crucial issues involved, the judgment has opened the floodgates for the executive and the legislature to further meddle with citizens’ rights. In a model democracy, the state is accountable to its citizens, and they should have the scope to exercise surveillance on the state.

The judgment makes the state more powerful, and more power in the hands of power-hungry politicians may make the state tyrannical. The only ray of hope left now is that in due course a larger bench of the Supreme Court may resurrect the dissenting views of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. M.N. BHARTIYA ALTOPORVORIM, GOA AS the Aadhaar number is a unique ID and contains the biometric data of all residents of India, it is essential that the government protect its database from private parties and hackers.

It is also important to ensure that the moment a holder of an Aadhaar number dies it is blocked to prevent misuse either by relatives of the deceased holder or fraudsters. And for this it will be necessary for the administration to ensure that the necessary link is provided to all municipalities, gram panchayats and other local-level authorities and also for them to keep a close watch on the working system.

ASHOK K. NIHALANI PUNE, MAHARASHTRA I STRONGLY disagree that the Aadhaar number violates one’s right to privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution. By restricting its use to public welfare schemes, the Supreme Court has ensured that Aadhaar serves the purpose for which it was created. A lot of taxpayers’ money has been spent on this project, and striking it down would mean a waste of all that money.

India now has the dubious distinction of being the first country in the world to have a national-level biometrics database. It is the duty of the government to protect the data from intruders and put in place checks and balances to ensure that data are used properly.

VIDHYA B. RAGUNATH THANJAVUR, TAMIL NADU I WAS saddened to read the news of the cancellation of the dialogue process between India and Pakistan (“War of words”, October 26). There has been loss of lives on both sides, and India and Pakistan have traversed a hard path.

My request to the media is publish/