Aadhaar: Kafka’s ghost has come back to haunt us

In the times ahead, with the advent of Aadhaar as a ubiquitous part of our life, Franz Kafka, and his magnum opus, The Trial, offers rare insight into better understanding the reality of the common man in this country. We should look back to this writer to gain some perspective on the severity of the coming times.

Aadhaar, apart from some intellectual and ethical problems, suffers from some serious loopholes. The government continues to ignore the order of the Supreme Court by making Aadhaar mandatory for availing welfare schemes. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) continues to ignore serious questions about Aadhaar’s safety, and its inefficient implementation techniques.

We are entering a Kafkaesque reality. At its basic, Kafkaesque stands for the nightmarish and unpleasant world that was imagined in the fictional world of Franz Kafka. Kafka, through his oeuvre, allowed us to better understand that despicable part of our life, where we find ourselves utterly helpless and frustrated in front of authority. In a Kafkaesque world, from the protagonist’s point of view, which will be yours, the world and its modus operandi are bizarre and illogical. Nothing makes sense. Isolated, we can’t comprehend how we entered this maze, and the elected authority figures of judges, officials, and politicians seem above reach.

Aadhaar, which stood for inclusivity and streamlining of governmental services, has acted like anything but. At the ground level, the initial enrollment in Aadhaar was marred with technical problems and corruption. The government handed out the duty to enroll people in the scheme to private contractors, which openly flouted governmental rule and fleeced the poor upto Rs 500 in some cases, in the name of processing fees. As for rations and other schemes, thousands of people are being denied access to their allotted pensions, and rations. The positive biometric authentication mechanism regularly faces problems of internet connectivity, machine malfunction, and other technical issues. It would be best to read the ground reports of Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy to understand the gravity of the situation.

We are in a world defined by Kafka where we, at some dark point in our lives, find ourselves utterly destitute in front of relentless harrowing circumstances. For the simplest of tasks, the official solution is a long-winding road filled with red tape and bribery check-points. For the uninformed (mainly the poor), the process itself provides convenient environment for government officials (shakedown artist) to earn a quick buck. The data has been sold on the black market, and people have been reduced to mere data points.

The governments continue to make Aadhaar mandatory for essential services such as ambulances, MNREGA and a myriad of government schemes that mainly cater to the poor people. So it seems, the idea is to erase the very existence of these people to facilitate the façade that there are no poor in India, instead of actually solving the problem of poverty.

Kafka’s protagonists constantly struggled with horrendous absurd judgments. In The Trial, Joseph K, the protagonist, is arrested but is not told why or what his charge is. He is rendered helpless in the face of countless judges, guards, attorneys, who hammer him down with bureaucratic procedure. His requests go unanswered, and his calls of help are left unheard, perhaps even by himself. Midway through the trial, K learns that his guilt is already assumed, and the bureaucracy, at its higher echelons, has secret rules and regulations and the identity of the bureaucrats is never revealed and that no one has been acquitted. The entire system seems like a black monolith of complex rules and regulations where Justice is a concept long forgotten.

Individually, we will all experience the world of Kafka in our own frightening ways. Some unfortunate people will face it before the others. As with everything else in this world, our position in the socio-economic strata will decide when. And as always, some will remain immune. As in Kafka’s world, the immune decide the rules for the vulnerable.

Aadhaar has now been made mandatory for income tax returns, except for some. It is now mandatory to link it to your bank account, failing which, your account will no longer be accessible. If Aadhaar is not used for 3 years, it will be deactivated, following which your bank account will not be accessible. Your own money is no longer in your control, and slowly and inevitably, your life will also not be.

The bill has been passed with self-reference to regulations, which have not been added and will be decided by the UIDAI later. You are essentially signing a blank sheet, upon which the terms of imprisonment will be set. Your Aadhaar number can be deactivated if the committee finds it appropriate to do so. After Aadhaar is mandatory, the government would have its citizens tightly in control. The grievance redressal system is basically a call centre, with no regulations for application status check or guarantee of redressal or remedy. One can already imagine oneself as Joseph K, in front of his or her black monolith.

The novel ends quite abruptly. Joseph K is taken into a quarry and executed by two unknown officials. Joseph K dies without knowing his offence, or if he was actually guilty. His guilt, I presume, was his very existence. An ordinary existence that could be persecuted, without much consequences to the monolith. A sacrifice for the benefit of many.

Kafka’s ghost has come back to haunt us.

In the coming days, we might not have to suffer a Kafkaesque reality. If we quit the black monolithic, we might find some respite, and sleep from the nightmare that this country is about to enter. As Aadhaar, with its labyrinth-like apparatus rapidly spreading its roots in our daily lives, one will find himself helpless, frustrated, drained and deranged over its many complexities. The labyrinth of Aadhaar will slowly, but inevitably, turn into a catacomb of modern existence.

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