With a key Supreme Court verdict, which will decide the constitutionality of Aadhaar project, expected soon, one of the biggest cheerleaders of the project Nandan Nilekani has said that it should not be made mandatory. His views run counter to the argument that the government has made in the last few years, as it has tried to make Aadhaar mandatory not only for availing government services but also for basic private services like a cellular phone connection.

Although Nilekani has not argued in favour of "mandatory Aadhaar", he also, until now, never took a stance against the government view that believes Aadhaar should be mandatory for a number of services in India.

Aadhaar, the 12-digit number supposed to give a unique identity to millions of Indians, has been in news ever since it was introduced in 2010. While data privacy is undeniably one of the biggest issues surrounding Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number has also been criticised for not being able to deliver benefits to the end users, particularly the subsidy provided by the government under its ration card scheme, which requires Aadhaar number for verification.

There are reports that even children have lost their lives after being denied food for not having a ration card linked with Aadhaar number. And yet, supporters of Aadhaar have strongly taken its case forward and advocated a wider implementation across services and platforms across the country.

Infosys co-founder and bureaucrat Nandan Nilekani has been one of the strongest supporters of Aadhaar. He was the first chairman of UIDAI and under his leadership, Aadhaar took off from an idea to an entity that linked the country through a common thread providing benefits and in many cases an identity to those who had no means of proving their identity in a country with a population of over 132 crore people.

While time and again the Indian bureaucrat, politician, and entrepreneur has stressed on the need to have a strong data privacy law along with the Aadhaar law, he has also affirmed that Aadhaar as a system is free from all vices. "But to say that because of Aadhaar privacy is gone, as if there's nothing else happening on the planet, is, I think, a bit disingenuous," he had said in an interview to Quartz in April 2017.

Notably, data privacy is not the only issue surrounding Aadhaar. Modi-goverment's strong push of what can be described as the "Aadhaar-ification" of the country has raised flags among the privacy advocates.

Last year, the Central government in a bid to push its "Aadhaar objective" had set March 31 as the deadline for linking bank accounts and mobile phones with the 12-digit unique ID number. However, the Supreme Court in its verdict in March this year extended this deadline indefinitely while allowing the governmental agencies to link the Aadhaar number for the transfer of beneficiary schemes.

Now, months after the debate about Aadhaar being made mandatory stirred the country, Nilekani, who is rightly described as the father of Aadhaar, has broken his silence on the issue.

His views? Aadhaar should not be made mandatory except for a few things like PAN card, etc.

"I don't believe that Aadhar should be mandatory. And we need to protect people's privacy," Nilekani said in an interview with Vir Sanghvi.

Nilekani believes that in a utopian world, Aadhaar would not be made mandatory except for a few things like PAN card etc, people would not be denied benefits because they don't have Aadhaar card, and people at the point of delivery would be allowed to use discretion in regard to passing on the benefits associated with Aadhaar. "Not mandatory expect for a few things," he said.

When asked if he was OK with the Supreme Court not making Aadhaar mandatory, the former UIDAI chairman said he was absolutely fine with it. "Yes, I am fine with it (on Aadhaar not being made mandatory). The real use of Aadhaar is when it is used for delivering online benefits, innovation on top of this. So if is not mandatory for something, I'm fine with it," he said.

Besides sharing his views on Aadhaar, Nilekani also shed light on two of the most important questions pertaining the unique number.

When asked if Aadhaar could be used for mass surveillance of the Indian citizens, Nilekani rubbished the claims saying that if someone were to do a mass surveillance of the people, they would use mobile phones. "Aadhaar as a surveillance state is an over inflated fear and frankly if you want to do surveillance, just use your mobile phone," he said.

Similarly, privacy advocates have also raised concerns regarding the collection of biometric data while registering for Aadhaar.

ALSO READ: Bill Gates says he is a fan of Aadhaar, claims it doesn't harm privacy

Nilekani while shedding light on the use of biometric data said that, it is there to provide uniqueness to the identity. "And the biometrics was there for one very very important reason. How do you give a billion Indians a unique ID? How do you make sure they have only one ID? And there was no other way we could do it without biometrics because at that time many Indians didn't have any ID at all. And if you would rely on simply them saying so then many people would take multiple ID and game the system. So we had to have a relatively unique way of ensuring foolproof-ness," he said.