Both Barack Obama and David Cameron-Nick Clegg stood by their words and abandoned national ID schemes. Unfortunately, Narendra Modi and BJP, which promised to scrap biometric Aadhaar during their election campaign, have gone back on their words
The US’ Department of Homeland Security is creating a global biometric system of identification and economic control, so that biometrics becomes the common international denominator identifying us to governments and corporations. Such a system destroys national sovereignty, removing control of the people over their government. This system threatens religious freedom, privacy, states’ rights, the rights of representation and our ability to redress grievances, state sovereignty and national sovereignty. -Mark Lerner in Systematic Plan for a Single Global Biometric ID System
The national identity card scheme represents the worst of government. It is intrusive and bullying, ineffective and expensive. It is an assault on individual liberty which does not promise a greater good. The Bill is, therefore, partly symbolic. It sends a message that the Government is going to do business in a different way. We are the servants of the people, not their masters, and every action that we take must be considered in that context.