Central minister from Kerala, Alphons Kannanthanam cannot stay away from controversy for too long it seems. After his controversial remarks on beef, he has landed in yet another row, this time over Aadhaar.
Scoffing at reports of Aadhaar data breach, Alphons, who is the Minister of State (MoS) for IT, Culture and Tourism, said that while people had no qualms in "getting naked" before the white man for a US visa, they cry foul about privacy when it comes to Aadhaar.
“We have absolutely no problems going and putting our fingerprints and the iris and getting your whole body naked before the white man at all. We have no problem. But when the government of India, which is your government, asks you your name and your address, nothing more, there’s a massive revolution in the country saying it’s an intrusion into the privacy of the individual. I mean, how far can we go? Let the Supreme Court decide,” Alphons had said on Friday, during a session at the Future Global Digital Summit in Kerala's Kochi.
In his address, Alphons said that he had to fill up 10 pages to apply for a US visa and the questions ranged from where his grandfather was born, to where he went on honeymoon.
"Ten pages of data which you have never even confessed to your wife or husband ever, that is passed on to the white man. We have no problem," he said.
The issue snowballed into a controversy on Sunday, when the minister stuck to his remark when asked for a clarification in Thiruvananthapuram.
What is given in #Aadhaar are just name & address. Your bio-metric data is with UIDAI and let me assure you that it has not been breached, its absolutely secure. We have given authorisation to govt agencies to access #Aadhaar information: Union Minister KJ Alphons in Trivandrum pic.twitter.com/C9znR1eJLR
— ANI (@ANI) March 25, 2018
And soon, citizens decided to tell the minister that there was a difference between the two scenarios that he had decided to compare: The difference between "coercion" and "consent."
Alphonso Mango, learn the difference between consent and coercion. I GIVE details for visa because I WANT to fly but I HAVE TO GIVE details for aadhar card even if I DONT WANT it.
— Paresh (@hi_paresh) March 25, 2018
Not everyone goes to US and those who do, do it by choice. How do you guys even manage to be such high profile minister.
— Ankur Goel (@ankur2smart) March 25, 2018
Naked? For a US visa? Things have certainly changed https://t.co/7aNLYuWSQ5
— Sidharth Bhatia (@bombaywallah) March 25, 2018
But 1.6 billion people doesn't apply for US Visa. Weird argument to defend privacy theft #databreach
— Mehraan Laigroo (@mehraan_1989) March 25, 2018
— José Covaco (@HoeZaay) March 25, 2018
What a comparison - visa application for a foreign national and Aadhar card.
— Revathy (@RevathyNS) March 25, 2018
Now since you made this stupid comparison, let me inform you that the visa information is protected under strict policies and protected info about a person is NOT available on "sale"! @alphonstourism
The visa delivery man rang the doorbell.
— Samit Basu (@samitbasu) March 25, 2018
'Business? Or leisure?' https://t.co/OYHoFcZGe0
You can always decide Not to go to US Mr. minister @alphonstourism so don't be so naive to compare it with Aadhaar & Govt's "non& negotiable" insistence on making it mandatory... isn't that's the least expected of an educated person... #justasking #aadhaarfail
— R Gupta (@RGspeak) March 25, 2018
Is applying for US visa voluntarily mandatory for every Indian citizen? Do you guys understand consent, privacy and things like that?
— শেখর (@MangoBwoy) March 25, 2018