Didi’s dare: Disconnect my phone, won’t link it to UID
APPEAL West Bengal CM urges party workers, leaders to follow suit
KOLKATA: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the Centre on Wednesday, saying she will not link Aadhaar to her phone number and dared authorities to “disconnect it if they wanted to”.
Banerjee, the chief of Trinamool Congress (TMC), also urged an audience of about 3,000 party workers and leaders not to link the two.
“Under no circumstances will I link my Aadhaar with my telephone number. If the authorities disconnect my phone, let them do it. It will actually save me a lot of trouble as I won’t have to go through a number of text messages,” she said.
She was speaking at an extended core committee TMC meeting in Kolkata.
The Aadhaar, a 12-digit identity number given to people who enrol with their biometric details, has been a matter of controversy for political parties and privacy advocates who believe the programme gives government indiscriminate power.
“What does BJP want? Do they want to listen to people’s secrets. It’s a direct attack on privacy,” she said.
Describing the decision to link the two as an attack on privacy, she said, “I am not bound to make all my personal conversations public. After you link Aadhaar with your phone, even personal conversations between husband and wife will reach the BJP office. We are taking up the issue in and out of the Parliament. If need be, we may fight it legally too,” she added.
The Bengal chief minister also pointed out that her party has already accepted the decision to link Aadhaar with PAN since it involves income tax collection.
The meeting became the platform for presenting the party’s blueprint for the rural polls in 2018 and Lok Sabha elections the following year. These elections are significant since it is being considered as a rehearsal for the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha polls.