Asaduddin Owaisi, the President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM,) recently lashed out at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI.)
Mr. Owaisi, on the 19th of February, said, “UIDAI did not follow due procedure and abused its powers. The result was (understandable) panic among people. First, UIDAI has no power to verify citizenship. It has few powers to look into some cases of Aadhaar being granted incorrectly.” He questioned how many Muslims and Dalits were among the ones who needed to prove their citizenship.
The development came after the government body UIDAI issued notices to 127 people in Hyderabad, alleging them of having aadhaar cards on false information. Out of the 127, 3 people are said to be Muslims.
However, the UIDAI denied the allegations and said the process has nothing to do with citizenship and is about individuals who are illegal immigrants and are not qualified to have aadhaar cards.
The UIDAI took to Twitter and posted, “As per the Aadhaar Act, such Aadhaar numbers are liable to be cancelled.” The tweet read, “Therefore, the RO [Regional Office] Hyderabad has sent notices to them to appear in person and to substantiate their claims for getting an Aadhaar number.”
According to sources, the Government of India asked the 127 people to appear before a deputy director on the 20th of February.
The Telangana Member of Parliament (MP) said, “The Deputy Director in this case made it about verifying citizenship – which they aren’t empowered to do. The identical notices don’t even provide any specific findings of the preliminary inquiry that has to be made. Notices don’t even say what these “false pretences” were. Which police officer provided you with this information?” He further asked the Telangana Police on what grounds they issued the notices to the 127 residents of the State. Mr. Owaisi said, “Can Telangana DGP confirm if they shared a list of 127 names with UIDAI? Can they tell us on what grounds? Since UIDAI has now shifted the responsibility to Telangana Police, it is their responsibility to clear the air (sic.)”
The notice to the 127 people came at a time when many residents of Hyderabad, AIMIM members and others are protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, the National Register Citizen (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR.)
