Party claims UIDAI had tied-up with a US firm, reportedly financed by an arm of CIA, to rollout Aadhar in the country

The CPI(M) on Thursday demanded immediate cancellation of a tie-up between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and a US firm, reportedly financed by an arm of CIA, and suspension of the Aadhar scheme, charging the government with compromising vital data.

“The collection of personal data and biometrics of all Indian citizens through the Aadhar programme has been made available to the United State’s agencies through the employment of these companies,” party Polit Bureau said in a statement here.

“It is now known through the Snowden files that the US authorities have been suborning all data through US telecom and internet companies. The Indian government and the UIDAI has compromised the vital data collected of Indian citizens by such tie-ups,” it said.

News reports on Wednesday revealed that an American start-up that won the contract to validate Aadhar data was being partly funded by CIA's finance arm In-Q-Tel.

The party also said that the UIDAI collection of data has “no legal basis” and, in spite of that, it was also “being used illegally to make the Aadhar number compulsory for delivery of social services and subsidies.”

Terming the report that UIDAI has tied up with a US company with CIA links as “a matter of deep concern,” CPI(M) said the US company, which provides the software to manage the data base for the registration of Aadhar, had CIA as “one of the investors.”

It said UIDAI had earlier too entered into contracts with a US-based company and another French company for the Aadhar project.

The party demanded cancellation of the tie-up with foreign companies and a suspension of the Aadhar scheme “till Parliament deliberates and decides on its future and, if required, a legislative enactment.”