Dimapur, Oct. 31 (EMN): The Naga Students Federation is the latest to join the chorus against the implementation of linking of Aadhar to direct benefit transfer of welfare schemes by the government.
The NSF on Tuesday wrote to the Chief Minister of Nagaland with copies to the Governor and the Speaker of the NLA that the state should make use of Article 371A of the constitution and move for a resolution against linking Aadhar to those schemes.
"Declare the Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 as inimical to Naga customary law, social identity and practice; and Bar the applicability of the Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 to the state of Nagaland pending the final Indo-Naga solution by resorting to the exemption clause under Article 371A of the Constitution," was the demand of the NSF in the letter. It also reminded that, "Article 371A of the Constitution exempts the State of Nagaland from the applicability of the Acts of Parliament in respect of religious or social practices of the Nagas, Naga customary law and procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law, and ownership and transfer of land and its resources. And whereas the State Legislative Assembly has a special prerogative to decide whether an Act of Parliament should be made applicable to the State. It is thus, the bounden duty of the State Legislative Assembly to defend, protect, uphold and advance the sanctity of this special status conferred by the Constitution of India and all the more so as the right to self-determination is the inalienable right of the Nagas."
The NSF stated that the imposition of Aadhar card as a "big threat to Naga customary law and identity" . "It is nothing but a direct challenge of privacy threatening even the idea of Nagas right to self-determination. Imposing of such drastic nationalising policy upon the Nagas pending the final Indo-Naga solution is thus inimical to the process of Indo-Naga Peace Dialogue," it further stated.
The idea of social welfare benefit is aggressively being "digitalized" and the idea of "human person" no longer exists in the eyes of the state unless the citizens are a collection of digital data and the "human person" has been reduced to a mere tabulation of data and nothing more.
"As a matter of fact, free enjoyment of social benefits within the fabric of collective social identity is sacred to the Nagas and any denial thereof in the name of identity numérisation is inimical to the social and religious practice of the Nagas. Nagas thus, cannot permit India to reduce the sacred social idea of "humanity" to a mere existence of "digital knowledge" and a “machine-man” in the name of social security," it stated.
The federation also alleged that the enforcement of Aadhar is "aggressively" pursued only in some selected states in the Northeast unlike other states in India for the reasons "best known to the Government of India".
