The Aadhaar journey: From flagship Cong project to cornerstone of BJP’s ‘Digital India’

A look at the journey of Aadhaar, its conflicts, and how it has expanded under the current government:

Origins as an ID project under Vajpayee, then UPA govt

The roots of Aadhaar can be traced back to the Atal Bihar Vajpayee government which – in the wake of the Kargil War – proposed a ‘Multipurpose National Identity Card’ in 2001, to be issued on the basis of a National Register of India Citizens, so as to stem illegal immigration.

But the concept only took off in 2006, under the first UPA government led by Manmohan Singh. Initially, it was pitched as a “unique ID (UID) for below-poverty-line families”. At the same time, the Registrar General of India started a National Population Register (NPR) exercise to track “citizens” and “non-citizens”. While the overseeing authority for the UID project was the erstwhile Planning Commission (now the NITI Aayog), the Union Home Ministry monitored the NPR.

Later, the UID programme evolved into Aadhaar, a 12-digit number to be issued to “all residents” – not differentiating between “citizens” and “non-citizens” – as a technology-based solution to provide a form of identification. In 2009, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was set up to implement Aadhaar, with Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani brought in as its first chairperson.

In September 2010, the first 10 Aadhaar cards were issued to residents of Tembhli village in northwestern Maharashtra, in the presence of PM Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Nilekani.

UIDAI vs Home Ministry

Before enrolling of residents under the Aadhaar system and building of the NPR database were eventually merged, there was a long episode of conflict between the UIDAI and the Home Ministry, under P Chidambaram. The main argument was that the two separate exercises were resulting in duplication of data, with both collecting biometrics and going through the whole verification process. The Finance Ministry, under which the UIDAI fell, and Home also clashed over who was the proper authority to collect population data.

Chidambaram noted that Aadhaar involved voluntary enrolment, and covered everyone, while as a mandatory exercise meant for citizens, the NPR was more useful. It was also pointed out that the UIDAI was using private agencies to collect Aadhaar data. But Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission and a close Manmohan Singh confidant, held his own.

Eventually, in 2012, the PM stepped in. After a Cabinet-level meeting, the two departments reached a compromise – while the UIDAI would enrol 40 crore residents, in addition to the 20 crore already enrolled, in 16 states, the NPR would collect data for the remaining 60 crore people. Crucially, the departments also agreed to share their data – for those who already had Aadhaar IDs, the NPR would not capture their biometrics and instead use the UIDAI’s database, and vice-versa.

At the time, in its first phase, Aadhaar had issued IDs to 20 crore residents, while the NPR had collected data from about one crore people. As the government continued to push Aadhaar as a flagship programme ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the NPR eventually became a secondary project.

In terms of funds, while the NPR was created with an initial budget of Rs 6,649 crore, the Aadhaar project got Rs 8,962 crore in funding for the first phase.

The failed NIAI Bill

Amid the conflict between the UIDAI and the Home Ministry, the UPA government in its second term introduced the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill in the Rajya Sabha in December 2010. The Bill sought to create a Central agency to issue Aadhaar cards, while specifying that this would remain voluntary, but not prevent service providers from mandatorily requiring Aadhaar.

After its introduction, the Bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance, headed by Yashwant Sinha, a BJP MP at the time. In its report, the committee raised several concerns, including that an Aadhaar card – available to all residents – would entitle “even illegal immigrants” to access government schemes. It also criticised the government over the dispute between the UIDAI and the NPR exercise.

“The UID scheme has been conceptualised with no clarity of purpose, leaving many things to be sorted out during the course of its implementation; and is being implemented in a directionless way… The scheme which was initially meant for BPL families has been extended (to) all residents in India and to certain other persons,” the report stated.

With the Standing Committee rejecting the Bill, the government resorted to executive orders in the absence of statutory backing for the UIDAI. The Bill, though, was not voted on in the Rajya Sabha and never introduced in the Lok Sabha.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the UPA was voted out. In 2016, the BJP government led by Modi withdrew the Bill to make way for the Aadhaar Act.

BJP’s shifting stance on Aadhaar

Prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, while still in the Opposition, the BJP was a vocal critic of Aadhaar. While it was still in its early days, the BJP called Aadhaar a “fraud scheme” and raised questions about the security of the database.

“This is a dangerous programme to regularise the illegal stay of migrants in the country. Is Bharat Mata so open to illegal migrants?” BJP national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said. “A thorough CBI probe is needed on the money spent and why Aadhaar was made mandatory.”

The late BJP MP Ananth Kumar, who would become a minister in the Modi Cabinet, said, “If you illegally enter other countries, you are shot at or put in jail. But if anyone illegally enters India, he is given citizenship. This is the contribution of Aadhaar. Half of Assam is occupied by Bangladeshis. Aadhaar is the biggest fraud in the country.”

Then BJP national vice-president Smriti Irani questioned the constitutional validity of Aadhaar. “The reality is striking for me as an Indian that a concept which does not have the sanction of Parliament today is collecting biometric data which violates the constitutional right to privacy,” she said.

Ahead of the 2014 general elections, Modi also criticised the scheme. “On Aadhaar, neither the team that I met nor the PM could answer my questions on the security threat it can pose. There is no vision, only political gimmick,” Modi tweeted in April 2014.

At a rally in September 2013, Modi referred to Aadhaar as “jadi booti (hocus pocus)”, and questioned the expenditure on the programme. In April 2014, he targeted Nilekani, saying, “Those who think they have given birth to IT in this country did not listen to a common man like me.”

However, soon after its landslide Lok Sabha election win, the BJP changed its position on Aadhaar and began to put its stamp on the programme.

“The need for a common identity card was felt since the Vajpayee government was in power. A group of ministers even worked on this. However, not much was done during the UPA I to carry forward this vision. Eventually Aadhaar was launched only in the second term of the UPA government,” Modi told journalist Shankkar Aiyar, as per his book ‘Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India’s 12-Digit Revolution’.

“Our problem was not with the idea of Aadhaar, but with the inadequacies of Aadhaar. We have never opposed anything for the sake of opposition. I do not believe in that kind of politics. The UPA government had a problem of imagination and an even bigger problem of implementation. I knew Aadhaar had potential. For years they ran Aadhaar, but it still didn’t have any parliamentary backing, nor integration with public service delivery,” Modi added.

After the BJP came to power, the government held a series of meetings with Nilekani on the scheme. Reports at the time suggested that what was a big factor for the Modi government in coming around to the idea of Aadhaar were the potential savings, up to Rs 50,000 crore, from plugging leakages in government schemes as per UIDAI estimates.

The Aadhaar Act, 2016

In July 2016, the government introduced the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill in Parliament. The Bill, which was nearly identical to the NIAI Bill, was cleared by Parliament in which the BJP held brute majority, making the UIDAI a statutory body nearly seven years after it was set up.

This time, the Congress-led Opposition criticised the Aadhaar Bill, over privacy and other concerns. However, demands for a Standing Committee to examine it were rejected – as has been the case with most of the legislation introduced under the Modi government. Most notably, the Opposition criticised that the government had introduced the Aadhaar legislation as a Money Bill, which can be passed by the Lok Sabha overriding Rajya Sabha objections.

In the case of the Aadhaar Bill, the Rajya Sabha, where the Opposition was in majority, returned the legislation, but its recommendations were rejected by the Lok Sabha.

The validity of the Act was later challenged in the Supreme Court, which in October 2023 said it would set up a seven-judge bench to consider the Money Bill issue – adding to the long list of legal challenges faced down by the scheme.

In 2013, the Supreme Court had ruled that residents could not be denied services if they did not possess Aadhaar cards. In 2015, the Supreme Court expanded the scope of Aadhaar to include the Public Distribution System, LPG and MNREGS, among other welfare programmes.

In 2018, after a 38-day hearing, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of Aadhaar. However, it reiterated that Aadhaar would not be mandatory to open bank accounts, get phone connections, or for admission to educational institutions.

The expanding scope of Aadhaar

During the early years of Aadhaar, the focus was on enrolments. By March 2014, the number of card holders stood at more than 60 crore, with more than 100 agencies using Aadhaar for authentication.

Initially, the LPG subsidy was at the centre of the Aadhaar rollout. Under the programme, 1.7 crore beneficiaries in 291 districts had received Rs 3,000 crore in LPG subsidies by January 2014.

Though the Supreme Court maintained that Aadhaar should not be mandatory for government services, as many as 26 welfare schemes went on to be covered under Aadhaar-based cash transfers. The Reserve Bank of India too asked banks to begin accepting Aadhaar to authenticate transactions and as identity proof.

Since 2014, about 77 crore more Aadhaar cards have been issued. As more states approach 100% saturation, the number of new Aadhaar cards generated has steadily declined. Just a handful of states, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and other Northeastern states, are at less than 90% saturation. Since 2010, a total of 137.86 Aadhaar cards have been issued.

CHART: Aadhaar enrolments

Enrolment may have eased up, but data on authentication transactions, which allow public and private services to verify identities, show that Aadhaar is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. From 24 lakh in 2012-13, authentications stood at 1,461 crore in 2023-24. Cumulatively, more than 10,500 crore authentication transactions have been completed.

Chart: Anjishnu Das

CHART: Aadhaar authentications

The numbers aren’t surprising given the widespread use of Aadhaar and its linkage to several other government databases. Since the BJP came to power, Aadhaar has expanded from direct benefit transfer scheme payouts and PDS schemes and is now mandatory to apply for passports, bank accounts, provident fund accounts, permanent account numbers (PAN), and income-tax returns.

According to the government, linking Aadhaar to other databases and services has helped eliminate crores of fake beneficiaries of government programmes. The monetary savings attributed to Aadhaar, however, are disputed. In 2016, the World Bank estimated that the government could save Rs 77,000 crore each year, but this figure has been criticised by some economists, including Reetika Khera and Jean Drèze.

Chart: Anjishnu Das

In 2022, the Election Commission began a programme for the voluntary linkage of voter ID cards to Aadhaar to verify electoral rolls. In December 2023, Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal reiterated that the linkage drive had not yet begun while the Supreme Court in September maintained the linkage was not mandatory.

In May 2023, the Union Finance Ministry expanded the list of non-banking entities that could use Aadhaar for identity verification to include 22 private companies.

On Monday, Aadhaar was made mandatory for the rural workers under the MNREGS, a move that the Congress called Modi’s “cruel New Year gift to exclude crores of the poorest and marginalised Indians from earning a basic income”.