India. Last chance for a welfare state (Arghya Sengupta, South Asia Monitor)

With the billionth Aadhaar number being issued, the Aadhaar project is well on its way to becoming the centrepiece for governance in India irrespective of which government is in power. To that extent, critical engagement with the Aadhaar act is an essential exercise in a free and democratic polity. But much of this engagement, including on these pages, leads one to believe that the Aadhaar act puts an official imprimatur on a mass surveillance tool violating fundamental rights, hammered through Parliament by a brute majority. The reality, though equally momentous, is nonetheless distinct — Aadhaar is the last chance for an effective welfare state to take root in India. Subversion of this goal for nefarious ends is not only deleterious for citizens but for the state itself.

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=govd&nid=16288