BJP to review Aadhaar if voted to power: Rajnath

After committing to scrap foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail in its poll manifesto, the BJP has put a question mark on the fate of another UPA flagship programme Aadhaar that provides unique identity number to citizens, saying that it would “review” the project if it comes to power at the Centre.

The UPA government was using Aadhaar platform for direct transferring of subsidies but the move got stuck after the Supreme Court in March ordered that the scheme cannot be made mandatory for availing government social welfare benefits.   

BJP president Rajnath Singh told Deccan Herald in an interview that, “We will review Aadhaar project if BJP-led NDA comes to power and look into its flaws. Instead of Aadhaar, National Population Register should be the basis of distributing direct cash benefits to targeted people.”  While Aadhaar can be obtained by a resident of the country, only a citizen is entitled to get the NPR registration.
The NPR concept was floated by the previous NDA regime.

The BJP’s contention has been that any attempt to identify people should be aimed at weeding out “infiltrators” which Aadhaar fails to ensure. Even Rajnath hinted towards that when he said that the “infiltrators’ population has also gone up in the country”.
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has also tried to make a political capital out of what he claims are the shortcomings of the delivery mechanism instrument.  He had recently scoffed at Nandan Nilakani, the brain behind the Aadhaar project and Congress candidate from South Bangalore, while addressing a political rally in Bangalore. 

Modi sarcastically remarked that Congress is fielding a candidate who had no ‘aadhaar’ (no support) against BJP’s Ananth Kumar.

 He had also recalled writing several letters to the prime minister pointing out fissures in the scheme that “is detrimental” to national security but there was no response.
The BJP leaders said that there was no consensus on the virtues of the scheme within the government as well.

The parliamentary committee on finance, headed by BJP MP Yashwant Sinha, had given a report pointing out several infirmities in the Aadhaar bill introduced in Lok Sabha about two years back.

 The UPA government, since then, did not act get back to parliament on the issues raised.
The apex court is still to settle a bunch of petitions questioning Aadhaar’s constitutional validity on the ground that it was not backed by any statute.

Though BJP’s 2014 manifesto clearly stated that it was not in favour of the FDI in retail, the opposition party wants to carry forward other pro-poor schemes including right to food.