India : an emerging Orwellian state?
‘War on cash’ and ‘Biometrics based mass surveillance’ coalesce, pushing India down an ‘Orwellian State’ path.
Two events have had a decisive impact in shaping our world - 9/11 Terror attacks and 2008 Global Financial Meltdown. These two events coming back to back in first decade of 21st century not only had cataclysmic effects on the way Governments & other Non-governmental organisations functioned, but they’ve even altered individual behaviour & thought processes in myriad ways.
The shocking attacks of 9/11 were followed by War on Terror, which in few years time morphed into completely different monster. From aiming to uproot & annihilate terror safe havens in AfPak region, the focus shifted to fighting an ephemeral enemy, first in Iraq, followed by disastrous Libya campaign. A side effect was the rise of Arab Spring. Meanwhile, the terror that was sought to be destroyed became resistant & more mainstream. Terrorists today are homegrown, western educated & radicalised online. The measures that are being used to counter them are more covert & controversial because they are intruding into private space of ordinary citizens.
The weapons of new anti-Terror approach are highly sophisticated & intrusive mass surveillance, state control/regulation of financial transactions & flow of money, and outsourcing of ‘dirty work’ like targeted assassinations which Governments are wary of doing themselves. Another feature of this new dynamic has been increasing cooperation between state/its various agencies on one hand and big businesses, technocrats & entrepreneurs on other. This cooperation is poised to create what seems to be the initial stepping stones of an Orwellian State where everything is decided by a coterie of powerful people much to the detriment of ordinary citizens.
Mass surveillance based on Biometric identification is the weapon of choice of any Deep State. The technology for Biometric identification existed during 20th century. US Government established its Biometric Consortium in 1992. The US Department of Defence or DoD along with specialised institution DARPA instituted FERET (FacE REcognition Technology) program in 1993. Iris scanning technology was patented by 1994. However, the use of Biometrics for Mass Surveillance gained major push after twin towers came down in September 2001. In early 2002, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) established the ISO/IEC JTC1 Subcommittee 37 (JTC1 /SC37) to support the standardization of biometric technologies to "promote interoperability and data interchange between applications and systems." Next year in 2003, National Science & Technology Council, a US Government cabinet-level council, established a Subcommittee on Biometrics to coordinate biometrics R&D, policy, outreach, and "international collaboration." Same year the Europeans followed suit and established the European Biometrics Forum (or EBF) supported by European Commission to address barriers to adoption and fragmentation in the market. The forum also acted as the driving force for coordination, support and strengthening of the national Biometric grid.
Its evidently clear that in less than two years after 9/11, the whole of Western World had given its go ahead to adoption & use of Biometrics as means of mass surveillance, internal security and exploring further possibilities. Two facts emerge here onwards; one, Western Nations still haven’t forced its citizenry to provide their Biometric data to their respective National Authorities and two, Governments outside Western World have not only gone ahead with enforcing their citizens to provide Biometrics to extra constitutional Authorities (like UIDAI in India or NADRA in Pakistan) but also started sharing Biometric data with Western Governments without consent of their citizens. In testimony before the US House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Homeland Security on "biometric identification" in 2009, Kathleen Kraninger and Robert A Mocny commented on international cooperation and collaboration with respect to biometric data, as follows:
“To ensure we can shut down terrorist networks before they ever get to the United States, we must also take the lead in driving international biometric standards. By developing compatible systems, we will be able to securely share terrorist information internationally to bolster our defenses. Just as we are improving the way we collaborate within the U.S. Government to identify and weed out terrorists and other dangerous people, we have the same obligation to work with our partners abroad to prevent terrorists from making any move undetected. Biometrics provide a new way to bring terrorists true identities to light, stripping them of their greatest advantage—remaining unknown.”
According to an article written in 2009 by S. Magnuson in the National Defense Magazine entitled "Defense Department Under Pressure to Share Biometric Data" the United States has bi-lateral agreements with other nations aimed at sharing biometric data. To quote that article:
“United States has bi-lateral agreements to share biometric data with about 25 countries. Every time a foreign leader has visited Washington during the last few years, the State Department has made sure they sign such an agreement.”
Its pretty much clear that global push for Biometric identification is being powered by organisations & leaders of the West. It is s primarily a Western project, meant for their own safety & privileges, and there’s hardly anything fruitful in it for 3rd world nations. On the contrary, there’s high likelihood that Biometric Databases of citizens in third world nations will be offered to Western Governments & even Non-government players by their unscrupulous & compromised leaders. The Wikileaks exposè showed about how no less than PM & Interior Minister of Pakistan offered complete Database of all Pakistanis on NADRA to US DHS & UK firm ISS. ( https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/opinion/nadragate-the-terrifying-cable-that-should-not-be-ignored/ )
In case of India, this push for Biometric had its own controversies. Aadhaar (India’s Biometric project) has been challenged in SC on grounds of violating Right to Privacy. The concerns with Biometrics is that once your face, iris or DNA profile becomes a digital file, that file will be difficult to protect from hackers. As the NSA revelations by Wikileaks have made clear, the boundary between commercial and government data is porous at best. Today, no data is secure no matter how strong its security. Biometric data can be hacked. There have already been a number of large scale breaches, including a 2015 incident in which the fingerprints of 5.6 million workers were stolen from the US Federal Government Office of Personnel Management. And when biometric security is compromised, the damage is long-lasting. You can change your password if it gets hacked, but you can’t change your fingerprint & Iris scan.
The looming risk for consumers is that more organizations, including companies and governments, will build databases of biometric identifiers in order to conveniently identify them. Such databases are a security risk and, for companies, a legal minefield. Already we are seeing creation of parallel databases by private companies in India that are using Aadhaar to confirm identity of individuals, like Telecom operators & Banks. CEO of mobile security company Delta ID, Salis Prabhakar said in an interview, “A central repository of biometric data would be a gold mine for hackers,” Someone who has access to your raw biometric data could use it to access your accounts, steal your identity, or implicate you in a crime.
Apart from security, there’s this issue of accuracy of Biometric confirmation. No biometric measure is 100 percent accurate, even under ideal conditions, says Tim Edgar, professor in Brown University’s Executive Master in Cybersecurity program. A lapse in accuracy could result in someone being falsely identified—and treated—as a known felon or suspected terrorist. “It’s one thing to take a picture of a person facing the camera in good lighting, and another to compare it to one taken via a surveillance camera in real-world conditions. Similarly its one thing to capture 10 fingerprints in a controlled way, and another compare them to one partial fingerprint taken from potential crime scene. The consequences of a false positive can be pretty severe, especially if the agency doesn’t understand the limits of biometric technology.”
An article in Sunday Guardian exposed serious lapses in Aadhar developed by UIDAI. In this article, it was shown how major Western companies were entrusted with developing Aadhar, from supplying hardware & software for this gargantuan project, as well as cross checking the veracity of data recorded. ( http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/foreign-agencies-can-access-aadhar-data )
Now to the second important piece of Orwellian Jigsaw - 'Cashless’. Many experts are saying that a New World Order has started taking shape, a world where Governments & authorities like Central Banks, Centralised Biometric Database authority’s & Intelligence agencies will become more powerful than they’ve ever been in Human History. Coupled with an unrelenting assault by quasi-State apparatus & State/non-state players on various institutions (like independent Judiciary, media, NGOs etc) meant to provide protection to an average Citizen against a rampaging state, an unprecedented power disparity & imbalance between the two is being created.
The push for Cashless has its genesis in 2008 Global Financial crisis. Its ironic that the institutions that lead to the horrendous financial meltdown (Banks & Financial institutions) are at the centre stage of creating a 'New Economic World Order’. The Central Banks in collusion with the State have started a 'War on Cash’, something that is now well known & documented.
So who’s behind this push for Cashless? A closer look reveals the proponents : credit card companies, Central banks, governments, media companies, technology companies and some influential & successful businessmen & entrepreneurs. What do they stand to gain from demise of cash? Banks would love to see all financial transactions take place through their platform, credit card firms would gain exponentially as people shift from cash to card payments, governments would relish the prospect of getting to know where each penny comes from & goes to so that they can tax each transaction, tech companies are pushing their own digital payment platforms. The catastrophic 2008 Global financial meltdown left Western economies in huge debt. One way of reducing their future liabilities is to reduce interest rates. But with interest rates already Zero bound, there’s little scope for Central banks to play God. However, if cash is eliminated from the system, Central banks can delve into the realm of negative interest rates without the fear of a 'Bank run’. Citizens won’t be able to withdraw money from Banks to counter negative interest rates because they won’t be holding any cash reserves in a Cashless economy.
Most Western nations had started taking first steps towards Cashless economy by eliminating higher denomination currency notes, placing limits on amounts of cash transactions one can do, restrictions on withdrawal of cash from Bank accounts etc. This 'War on Cash' went Nuclear in India when Demonetisation of Rs. 1000 & Rs. 500 currency notes was announced to a shocked nation by none other than PM himself. In one stroke, 85% of total value of currency in circulation was rendered worthless. The effects were devastating, people forced to wait in long queues outside Banks & ATMs, many died from shock & exhaustion. The effects on economy especially informal sector, in a country where Cash was King, were bound to be devastating.
The role of Western players behind India’s Cashless drive have been known for some time. The 'Catalyst' programme that conceptualised India’s Demonetisation drive in late 2016 is basically a partnership between USAID, US Treasury Deptt, group30, Better than Cash alliance, Gates foundation, Dell foundation, Citi, Visa, Mastercard & Omidyar group on one hand and India’s Ministry of Finance & various Indian Tech & Digital players on other. Norbert Haering, a well known German economist & writer exposed the roles of various such players in his blog norberthaering.de which serves as precious repository for anyone interested in understanding War on Cash. In an article he showed how various Western agencies & US Government departments were behind momentous & ill-planned Demonetisation.
( http://norberthaering.de/en/home/27-german/news/745-washington-s-role-in-india )
Keeping all these above facts in view, especially the role played by foreign powers in deciding India’s two most crucial initiatives - Aadhar & Cashless, its essential that the Indian public is kept well informed about how such historic decisions are taken. Need of the hour is complete transparency on part of Indian government & various authorities like RBI, UIDAI etc while taking such decisions that have potential to impact not just a billion plus Indians but their future progeny as well. If India has to prevent itself from becoming a proverbial Orwellian state, the time to resist is NOW !!!
