KOCHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two days after he was quoted as saying “we have no problems in putting our fingerprints and whole body naked in front of a white man”, junior Union tourism and IT minister
Alphons Kannanthanam continued to be in the eye of a storm as he clarified his statement while resolutely defending the virtues of
Aadhaar.
“When I was filling the application form for the
US visa, I had to fill 10 pages of data, including where my grandfather was born… where I had travelled to in the last 10 years and for what purpose. We have no problems in putting our fingerprints and whole body naked in front of a white man. But when the government of India asks for name and address, then there is a massive revolution in the country saying it is an intrusion into the privacy of the individual,” he had said in Kochi on Friday.
Alphons on Sunday said people had not understood what he meant. “We need to ponder why we raise such a hue and cry while sharing one’s address and biometric data with the government. I never said we strip before a US agency. I can’t be blamed if someone doesn’t understand the meaning of body scan. But I mean what I said and it is something for us to ponder,” the minister told TOI.
Political parties across political lines had pounced on his statement. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Sir, the difference is that I have an option not to apply for a US visa if I find the process intrusive. Will the govt give me the choice of opting out of sharing my data with you?”
CPM MP MB Rajesh took a similar tack, saying only very few among 130 crore Indians apply for the US visa. “BJP had opposed Aadhaar while they were in opposition,” he said.
The former bureaucrat-turned-minister on Sunday reiterated that Aadhaar was completely safe and secure. “There is no case of anything leaked from a biometric system. What is given in Aadhaar are just name and address. Your biometric data is with UIDAI and let me assure you that it has not been breached. It’s absolutely secure,” he said.
Congress MLA VD Satheesan said passport and visa data could not be compared with Aadhaar. “The US visa, like any other visa or our passport, is handled by authorized government agencies. A similar security is ensured in case of our bank accounts as well. But there are around 30,000 agencies across the country which are authorized to enrol people in Aadhaar,” he claimed.
Alphons dismissed allegations of data leak via Narendra Modi app. “Do you think the PM is going to give your data to a private company? Don’t believe fake stories,” he said.
The minister had also claimed that the digital story in India was hugely successful under the Prime Minister. “Generally, governments are accused of being obstructionist. Across the world, they are the biggest obstruction to any good that has to be done. But the field of digitalization is one area where our government has taken the lead,” he had said.
