Govt says historic ruling, Congress too claims victory

NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government and the principal Opposition party, the Congress, both have claimed victory over the Supreme Court’s verdict on Aadhaar on Wednesday.

The Centre hailed the verdict as “historic” and finance minister Arun Jaitley said the Congress had cut a sorry figure in opposing a concept it pioneered when in power. “The court has only disallowed Aadhaar in some cases where it is not backed by law,” the minister said, adding that prohibitions on the usage of Aadhaar laid down by the apex court were not perpetual in nature.

Jaitley said the Congres brought in the unique identity programme without any legislative backing when it was in power and without specifying what it was meant for. “They introduced the idea and then did not know what to do with it.”

The Congress, on the other hand, called the judgment an endorsement of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s vision for Aadhaar. “For Congress, Aadhaar was an instrument of empowerment. For the BJP, Aadhaar is a tool of oppression and surveillance,” Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said. The party, however, warned it will challenge in court any attempt by the government to bring an amendment to the Aadhaar act through the money bill route, which requires assent only by the Lok Sabha.

The government claimed it saved about ₹90,000 crore by eliminating fake and duplicate beneficiaries of welfare schemes. “In no field can we be a technology laggard... You have people seriously advocating this in the country,” Jaitley said.

“The version they (the Congress) had drafted was – there shall be an Aadhaar card, this is a procedure (with) which it shall be issued; what it will be used for was unclear from the beginning,” he said.

The minister questioned the Congress’s criticism of technology-based governance, saying some people were advocating against unique identification and EVMs (electronic voting machines), and in favour of paper ballots and cash.

“You can see the thread running through this thought process but everyone, including critics of Aadhaar, should realise that we cannot afford to defy or ignore technology,” he said.

THE CONGRESS CALLED

THE JUDGMENT AN ENDORSEMENT OF THE UPA GOVERNMENT’S VISION FOR AADHAAR