Data breach & case of Aadhar ‘infidelity’ by Ram Sewak Sharma
Photo credit Twitter @startupIndia
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, June 12: Amid the raging debate over the data breach allegedly from CoWin platform, denied strongly by the government even while leaving gaps in explanations, there is a curious case of Ram Sewak Sharma, who was credited to have created the architecture of the vaccination drive with Aadhar as the basis of the people.
The alleged data breach was being hotly discussed in the political circles on Monday, and one senior Congress leader was puzzled by the case of Sharma. “In my case, Aadhar number given at the time of Covid-19 vaccination is revealed in the public domain. In the case of P. Chidambaram (form Union Minister), his Aadhar number is also released in the public domain, and same is the case for KC Venugopal (Congress national general secretary),” said a top ranking Congress functionary.
But, he stated, the data breach shows that Sharma while taking the vaccination didn’t give his Aadhar number to the CoWin database. “In his case, it is Passport number that he had allegedly given while taking the vaccination,” added the Congress functionary.
Incidentally, the CoWin linked vaccination drive mandated that the people give their Aadhar numbers while taking the jabs. Sharma was credited for creating the CoWin platform with Aadhar as the basis. “This is so strange that the man who made Aadhar mandatory for vaccination through CoWin himself gave Passport number for taking the jabs,” said the Congress leader, who has sent a query to Sharma, asking for the reason for his lack of faith in sharing the Aadhar number.
Sharma was the CEO of the National Health Authority. He had also worked with Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani while creating the Aadhar architecture.
Incidentally, Aadhar has been the basis of the delivery of the social sector schemes under the Narendra Modi government. The excessive usage of Aadhar despite the Supreme Court ruling that the people if they are not taking benefits of the government cannot be forced to share the number has become generic.
It is commonly seen that Aadhar cards are asked routinely by the schools, housing societies, hospitals, government agencies. There had been several reports in the past in newspapers of Aadhar data being sold in the grey market for a few bucks.
Data breaches are being reported to be taking at regular interval even while the Central government asserted that the CoWin data is absolutely safe. Yet, the Opposition leaders have slammed the Ministry of Health for being vague in its explanation that the report of data breach from the CoWin platform is mischievous.
About The Author
