The National Population Register 2020 wants to know your mother tongue. In 2010, it did not.
The NPR will help the government of India deliver development to India’s poor, or so Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been claiming.
How will knowing the mother tongue of every Indian help Amit Shah deliver the fruits of development? By the way, linguistic data is already collected in the Census. But you see, the Census can only tell you the languages spoken in a village, a tehsil, a block, a city, and maybe a neighbourhood. It doesn’t reveal what languages Ram Kumar speaks, what is his neighbour Abdul Khan’s mother tongue, or that of Abdul’s friend Joseph D’Mello’s.
Also read: Why India should shelve NPR, the National Population Register
The development link
When the Census Act was passed in 1948, the people running India had respect for basic human decencies as privacy. But now, Amit Shah demands to know the mother tongue of every Indian, at the click of a button, on a mobile app.
Development, he says. We don’t know what development projects need the Narendra Modi government to link our mother tongues to our Aadhaar number, driving license number, passport number, voter ID number and who knows what else. Don’t worry, your PAN number is already linked to your Aadhaar, so that’s not needed in NPR.
Is Amit Shah planning to study the demand of MGNREGS work among Telugu-speaking people who don’t vote in elections? Is the Modi government going to give extra money in the PM-Kisan dole to Meitei-speaking farmers who don’t have a passport yet? Is the government going to start mother-tongue courses for linguistic minorities? There’s a Bengali who lives next to my house. He’s the only Bengali in the colony. Is Amit Shah planning to send a Bengali language teacher for the family? Or a Bengali-speaking yoga teacher perhaps?
Also read: Abandon NPR, delink it from Census — 190 economists and social scientists urge Modi govt
The language link
None of this makes sense. Why on earth would Amit Shah need individual level and household level linguistic data for development when he already has village-level linguistic data and his government can still not create jobs or prevent banks from collapsing.
It becomes a little worrying when you recall Amit Shah saying a while back that he wants Hindi to replace English as India’s “link language”. It gets even more worrying if you realise India has no data privacy laws and the one proposed by the government is actually a law to legalise unbridled government surveillance.
It is an insult to the intelligence of the people of India that the government needs to know our mother tongue to deliver development. But if you add the absence of data protection, you begin to see what’s happening.
Also read: More power & data access to govt — all about personal data protection bill
The privacy link
Think of the potential of linguistic data in targeting propaganda. In any case, when the Modi government says development it means propaganda. The NPR also collects phone numbers. You could be a Tamilian living in Haryana, but don’t worry, Mann Ki Baat SMS updates will reach you in Tamil after you’ve signed away your mother tongue to the NPR.
Somehow, the BJP might also come to know you are a Tamilian living in Haryana. You might then be added to a WhatsApp group that will give you an endless stream of Islamophobia and fake news in Tamil.
You might be a Bengali living in Bengaluru. With a few clicks, the government could make a list of all Bengali speakers in Bengaluru and ask them to prove their citizenship with the right documents within 14 working days. After all, Aadhaar and Passport aren’t proof of citizenship, as government officials have already pointed out.
Not many are able to see what a disaster the NPR is. One day, when the linguistic data from NPR might be used for delimitation, the opposition parties will know why they should have opposed NPR more strongly.
And it’s not just linguistic data. There is any number of micro-targeting possibilities in the NPR, helping the BJP in its election game. Using NPR data, they could target people of different profiles differently. And since we have no data protection law, we won’t know how, when and where the data is being misused and our privacy violated.
The author is contributing editor to ThePrint. Views are personal.
The press so biased that every time we go through an article we have to be careful about the author and his background and his character and antecedent and the rest will follow accordingly.
The author’s dilemma is based on his own hypothesis. The imaginary assumptions are nothing but his negative narratives. Just stupid journalism……
@saikia., Shivam Vij is very happy to give all.details to Google
Seems The Print has campus recruitment for its journalists from The JNU s and The Jamia.s of the world.
Just spewing venom without any basis or.logics
What ever he is doing is good for nation.
Writer has got limited knowledge about functioning of government.
Let the government function Mr. Patrakar
Did Amit Shah ever poked his nose in whatever you people are doing.
See the credibility you people are having and compare it with CNN and BBC,.
Everything he is doing is for the betterment of people. We the Indians in majority are switching off TV when news channels appear.
Where is the so called development? Bas ek jumla hai. Even Bhakts like you have jumla patriotism lol.
https://m.businesstoday.in/story/budget-2020-niti-aayog-shocker-poverty-hunger-income-inequality-up-in-22-to-25-states-uts-poor-indians/1/393404.html
Lousy and lazy analysis.As usual standard template
of Indian journalist to sell your stupid opinions .No quality ,substance or vigour in arguments .Garibonka liberal journalism. What a visionary article. As usual shivam always way ahead of times.
The writer is under the impression that all his readers are stupid like him.Never mind the Government is bent upon bring out people like you .
This is plain brainless and fear mongering journalism
Fake n imaginary no logic pl. Dont follow this journelist.
Amit Shah always have bad intention.Except Ambani ,Adani and other gujrati development they don’t want anybody’s development.
This Modi Govt. is so much being scrutinized and commented upon as if these people are only doing politics with the people and no other previous govt did politics with the people.
After all the role of govt. is to do politics only fir the betterment of people who elect it.
By the way please tell me:-
Who is Govt.?
What is Govt. stand for?
What is the relation between People and Govt.?
If you understand this than their is no need of this article.
Govt. is for people of its state.Then what is the privacy between people and govt.
What govt. is doing must be known to all country man and all countryman is known to govt.It is just simple.
Privacy does not mean that I will not tell anything about myself to the govt.
Then who I am and why govt. will serve me.
Privacy is a relation between me and govt. as my relation with my doctor or my advocate.
If this relation ship one to one is broken than each party should punished.
Privacy means what I am doing is none of you business but in the grab of privacy I must not do any work against the law of the land.
Transparency is the need of time today and it is not a one way street only.
Future of india . Orwellian nightmare. Add to this ,the unlimited number of BJP robo trolls who will shred anyone, who writes about their masters ,to pieces !You have a new age Third Reich !sieg heil!All Indications point to it only!
If you actually had read Orwell instead of just learning proverb,you would be knowing that his hit pieces were against imaginary communist government.
Very well put!!
Modi government’s moves are always clothed in innocence! To understand their motives and intentions, you need to read between the lines very, very carefully! If you look at the bigger picture regarding their moves, it will always appear to cut both ways.. you could interpret it either way, and both would seem logically correct.. but, as always, the devil lies in the details! Let me explain.
Demonetisation seemed like a move to end black money.. it was also rumoured to be meant to checkmate Mayawati before the UP state elections.. but, the details.. a higher denomination note was introduced with a smaller size.. if you were into black money, wouldn’t that be in your wishlist?! The firm chosen to print the new notes was blacklisted by multiple first world countries for fraud.
One of the earliest moves of the BJP govt was to ban strikes / protest by lawyers.. why? In any rebellion by the people against the state, lawyers are usually at the forefront. Is that why?! Modi has been taking a lot against dynastic politics.. he calls Rahul Gandhi ‘Shehzada’, but does he really mean it?! For the answer, just observe that Amit Shah’s son is BCCI secretary!
He says ‘Na khaunga, na khaane doonga!’ But so many people accused by BJP itself of corruption occupy high seats! They even made Ajit Pawar the Deputy CM, on both sides of which they filed an ACB case against him, and also gave him a clean chit! ?
So these seemingly innocuous moves of the BJP could well be fraught with danger. Anything out of the ordinary is not there by chance.. it is by design! The possibilities pointed out in the article are a clear and present danger!
In normal life, one does not give personal information to anyone without knowing which, what, when, where and why! Shouldn’t it be the same with the government, when there is neither any data policy nor privacy law?!!!
What lousy thinking !! Seeing conspiracy in every thing Modi does .. seems limited not only to Mamta Didi !! All you Modi haters can only belong to these categories :
1) those who have lost the opportunity of receiving / using / storing black money as had been prevalent in the last seven decades
2) those who are now disgruntled at having to pay tax which was easily avoided earlier
3) those who are steeped in corruption
4) those who are so-called leftist liberals
5) those who are jehadis, Islamic fundamentalists or their supporters for petty political gain
6) those who belong to / support Pappu, Lalu, Khangress, TMC, DMK, BSP, SP, etc, etc
You belong to which category ?
Itna fake journalism yahi hota h jab aap amity se pade ho with state board education
Kya Bakchodi kar rha h
Rubbish journalism… biased reporting of the journalist…
Whatever is imaginable this Govt. will do to remain in power, by hook or crook, and the unimaginable too is not beyond its doings. So, it is imperative to keep one’s guard.
Stupid journalism
Please add new meaning of STUPID in oxford Dictionary.
Stupider reader.
Not merely stupid. Much worse. And, it’s not journslism. The moron had munched too much of pork pakoda lacing it with crocodile wine. This canard is to please their puppeteers
All his imaginations are put in print to create a phobia in the minds of public. Simply it is utter perversion.
Wake up before it’s too late. Don’t say, ” I was not told.”.
Tadipar want to know mother tongue.
This is absolute rubbish.. I can imagine far more interesting conspiracy theories, if that was the goal of the so called writer.
Just think about china. Think of their huge population. Almost all their citizens are on surveillance of government. It is like George Orwell’s concept of 1984 coming into play. In India context it is difficult to implement as there are hundreds of languages. What the author highlights can be partly true. He sounds paranoid. However, the wrong person having access to so.much of data can really access our private logs without we knowing it. Once the data is under their control they can specifically point out who are those people are for/against their policies simply by scanning their account. NPR can be a tool towards that objective.
First of all your funds should be blocked. And barred from publishing hatred.
Typical fascist Sanghi response.
This is nothing but accusation based on his own conjectures and assumptions. It is dangerous to provide a platform to radical elements like Shivam vij
Read
Nonsense
Unlike the print YouTube, the prints print edition is biased, no research, agenda driven
Anti Modi Anti Shah Anti BJP Brigade Spin Out Lot Of Stories Hoping Ram Gopal Varmas To Lap It Up For Movie Making.
@Shivam Vij ….. why are you always a naysayer …. Can you think of solutions…. Can you highlight the inherent risks and possible mitigants…… Or would you like to continue to be an Eternal Pessimist
Why so much biased reporting? Wheres the role of senior editor in this article ? Sorry but i see So much shortcomings in your reporting more illogical than the article itself.
Amazing level of conspiracy theory!!! Do you have similar content for the previous govt or is this special for the current one?
Their plans of Isis network and establish destroy indian Constitution by Isis has come to end. So they r getting worried about secularism for all. These illegal immigrants are worried about democracy because their sharia will not work in this country. So they cry.
This writing is crass.
People like you are abetting the crimes committed by political criminals. You forgot Hiren Pandya and deliberate despatch of charred bogie with dead bodies to Ahmedabad from Godhra station. Shifting forensic evidence is criminal.
Shivam vij writes pure nonsense and fear mongers with the un-fathomable. This writing is crass.
Who is asking you read? Stop reading his articles.
How would you form an opinion if you don’t read?
True. But at the same time you need to have a reasonable level of IQ to understand what you read. Which in this particular instance you seem to be lacking.
None of the points are concrete and largely imaginary , on the edge of fear-mongering by writing fictions
Extremely biased article. Horrible fake news
From paranoid to completely nuts….the journey isn’t too long buddy…walk on.
Let a thousand Shas bloom!
India has got 125 crore people speaking different languages. Many people don’t speak
/ know their own mother tongue. Example: In Kerala – hindus, muslims, christians etc. speak malayalam.
One man thinking / mentality / intentions etc. etc. is always not good.
While Islam has one book,one god and one messenger and rest all are idiots and fake .what your view on this ?.It would be great if you could enlighten my bigoted mind .
“It becomes a little worrying when you recall Amit Shah saying a while back that he wants Hindi to replace English as India’s “link language”.” – Hilarious article…absolute lies…when the same sentence in the article links to “Shah says only requested people to learn it as second language”…stop these lies
Meanwhile, ThePrint analyses my preferences on the basis of the articles I read, needs my email ID to allow me to post a comment, captures my IP address, pace of my scrolling and puts Shekhar Gupta’s articles 4th regularly on the trending list so that I can click on at least one of the first three articles, this increasing the time I spend on the site and my engagement with it. Shivam Vij wants to preach without practicing it. He will ignore/divert this question – so I hope he answers just one question with sincerity – what does ThePrint do with my email ID? Why does ThePrint store my ID long after I have commented on it once?
Is print forcing you ? You voluntarily gave. Understand the difference you m0di0t.
Actually it is compulsory if you want to write a comment. So in that sense one is forced.
No one is forcing you to make a comment.
The problen wt these people is that their shops r bieng closed one by one…so anything this govt does is wrong…bcoz the status qou is bieng demolished…wt will they write about…its traumatic for them to see their spere of influence dwindle down to nothing…this govt is a deathknell to these people..look at the quality of some of the writers who r writing articles for the print…
Pathetic….
Totally imaginary and fake. He is instigating people against NPR and the census.
When I hear rhe name “Shivan Vij” the line that rings my in my head is “An individual educated beyond his intelligence”. Vij Woke up with some mugambo/gabbar singh type dream so came up with a latest new script…lolzz great entertainment..should join Bollywood as we are in need of some great script writers.
Aptly described brother. We need some fiction movie and Shivam is perfect.
How does one live with such paranoia? I shudder to think what life would be like for these conspiracy theorists. These people are indoctrinated at young ages by their social science & language teachers, then further ‘communisticized’ by their graduation professors. In the end You have zombies, filled with hatred and vitriol against anything & anyone connected with Indian culture, Hindu traditions & even national pride. I also consider it a failure of their parents, who could not protect these innocent souls from the terrible propaganda of communist poison. Whether Amit Shah is scheming or not, in this poor guy shivam’s mind a conspiracy is being hatched. Just imagine the toll it would be taking on his mental health, day in & day out. Pity.
A perfect example of uneducated men with degrees (hopefully) to their name s.
Hmmm good to see that Print has unblocked me. There is still hope for You.
Very serious and legitimate concern. Each one of us should be worried about data protection and resist incursions into our privacy – be it from the government or from private parties. Vij does not mention how the Indian government has proposed to (or done already) commercialize such data – that is as problematic as political propaganda. Let us resist NPR.
The thought of even such a disaster in waiting is disgusting. Shame on Feku and Tadipaar.
These dumbo double dholki stooge must now NPR and he, his jihadi masters can cry but still it will not be repealed.
Another sponsored article by Congress party. Unless one is a criminal, one need not worry how his or her data is being used. UK government keeps tab on the phone for more than two thousand people at any given time. This way they have prevented many terrorist acts in the country.
you don’t seem very up to date with the times.. today, criminals use data to target innocent people!
If someone at random comes and asks you two questions, you’ll ask him 10 questions, before you even think of answering those two! Shivam is just doing the same.. asking why!! Especially since there are no data protection laws to prevent it from being misused
What data protection laws .All you personal info is already sold by Facebook ,google.what data protection are you talking about?If Modi was fascist frauds like this author would have been shot and beheaded by now.This Rahul Gandhi chattu cant digest Modi‘s victory .Jal raha hai .
Ek chaiwala doosra tadipaar, What’s more, we can expect from them – Bolo abki baar —– sarkaar bhugtoo
This chaiwala is making all Pakistanis and their Indian collaborators wetting their pants. Please do not underestimate this man. I can feel your pain though.
Haha.. Modi govt has made ISI jobless.. the job of dividing the country is being done by Modi for free!!
The parliament should pass a bill that only chaiwalas will be appointed PM in future.
Bloody third rate person. On just plain speculation he targets Amit Shah , BJP. That is what this suffer journo has been doing since long. Provocative, abusive articles meant to pit one community against the other in the guise of FOE. I condemn this below the belt attempt to divide Indians by putting forth the writers own prejudices. This rogue character Vij knows well that if he keeps on abusing Modi, RS, BJP, Hindus he will be handsomely rewarded when the Church comes back to power. Shame on such rumour mongering. This is not journalism. This is dalali at its worst.
Is this privacy applicable to Indians only? Can you question rest of the countries in the world ?
Once you cross the country you must even keep informing in which place you are living. Countries used to have live data about a person. Do you have guts to question US or Singapore? Stop this bullshit.
They have data protection laws.. There is a guarantee that your information will not 2nd misused.. here, even Dhoni’s Aadhar data can appear on the net!
Mr Shivam, you are a disgrace to The Print, I do follow Shekhar Gupta, but such Biased reporting, with name-calling shows your level of maturity as a journalist. I believe you are misusing the print platform to further your bias.
Nonsense!