-The Times of India
"In many parts of India, infiltrators from Bangladesh are there, there are people from Pakistan living in parts, they are not citizens of India, but terror, trouble and destabilization is fomented by them," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
"The UID would include all residents, not citizens. So the overlapping between the national population register and UID, who will answer it?" he asked. The BJP leader said the issue of national security cannot be different from development.
"Can the issue of development be diverse from national security? In many parts, specially in the north-east, illegal immigrants have manipulated documents, like ration cards, voter I-cards, and got several rights. If we give them UID, they will say they are citizens of India," he claimed.
Nearly 12 crore UID numbers have been issued so far. "Confusion, chaos, differences and turf war has become the defining and disturbing feature of nearly all decisions of the UPA government. Ministers don’t agree, ministries differ and there is serious disconnect between the Congress and the allies on many policy initiatives," said Prasad, adding that the latest in this saga of uncertainty is the battle between the ministry of home and the Planning Commission on the preparation of UID.
Even the parliamentary standing committee has criticized the UID Bill that in substance gives statutory status to the Authority, which means overlapping with the National Population Register that is also engaged in capturing and storing the biometric data.
"By what time frame the national register of Indian citizen will be ready? Is the government taking measures to ensure that security issue is being addressed while preparing the NPR? What is the sanctity and integrity of the data being collected by the UIDAI?" the party asked.
BJP demands that these issues be clarified, and UID should not be rushed through without addressing serious national security concerns.