Union Home Minister Amit Shah has introduced another element in the country’s contentious identity discourse by proposing the creation of a new multi-purpose, smart card which will subsume all other cards which citizens now own and can be used for various purposes. He said the single card “will link all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, bank account, driving licence, voter card”, and any other existing marker of identity. He made the announcement at an event of the Registrar General of India, indicating that the database for the new programme would come from the National Population Register to be created on the basis of the 2021 census. The idea of such a card existed two decades ago but lost its relevance after the Aadhaar proposal emerged and was implemented. The idea of a smarter and more universal card should have no appeal now.

The controversy over Aadhaar lingers in some quarters even after the Supreme Court has approved it. But the court has imposed limitations on its scope and restrained the government from using it in all the ways that it wants. The government has tried to sidetrack the ruling, and a smarter card will help it to beat it completely. Privacy issues, which are still there at the heart of Aadhaar, will be more relevant in the plan for a card that connects all other cards. The court had told the government to introduce strong data protection and privacy law, which will make Aadhaar safe. The government has not done that. The risk of data and privacy violations will be greater when a single card holds all data. All Indian citizens will be vulnerable from internal and external sources, and there will be security challenges. The best way to ensure the integrity and security of data is to have it in different places.

The plan is basically political. The “one nation, one card” idea may be a fascination for the BJP just as oneness of other things has great political appeal for it. It cannot be a created “oneness”. The differences and diversity of the country should form the basis of its politics, administration and governance. The country will only be weakened if an artificial oneness and singularity are imposed on it. The practical and logistical problems involved in creating a single card will also be very big. It will be more expensive to create, and will demand newer technologies. It will leave out many people as census often does, and large numbers of migrant workers may not be covered. After all this, it will not give any greater benefit or advantage.