Aadhaar not ‘totalitarian’: Centre 

Aadhaar not ‘totalitarian’: Centre 

(Argument in the court over Aadhaar) Context

• Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal on Friday objected to arguments made by petitioners Advocate Shyam Divan that Aadhaar was driving India into a “concentration camp.”

The argument

• The Supreme Court had pinpointed that constitutionality of the scheme for Aadhaar has to be decided “once and for all” and probably by a nine-judge Bench.
• Senior advocate Shyam Divan, for the petitioners, argued that Aadhaar was reminiscent of 1984, a work by George Orwell about the totalitarian state where everybody and everything is watched by the ‘Big Brother state.’
• Sparks flew at the hearing post advocate Diwan’s statement.
• Being critical of Children getting their thumb prints for enrolling for Aadhaar, Divan called India into becoming a concentration camp.
• The new notifications even intend to withhold welfare benefits for those without Aadhaar.

Counter argument

• Mr. Venugopal said Aadhaar had helped over 350 million poor.
• The tragedy of it is all that money intended for public welfare schemes was swallowed up en route.
• After Aadhaar, people are getting their money and benefits, Mr. Venugopal submitted.
• He called Mr. Divan’s remark on the country becoming a concentration camp as hyperbolic and rather unparliamentary.
• Mr. Venugopal, who had earlier agreed to team up with Mr. Divan to approach the CJI for setting up an appropriate Bench to decide the constitutionality of Aadhaar, threatened to withdraw.