If denial of Aadhaar was connected to the initial days of the War on Terror (John Lindh), one might say that the Sept 11, 2001, attacks had always been about Aadhaar.
Asansol AG Church and the Class of 1995 had always
wanted to take away Antara's citizenship rights,
they had wanted to attack the concept of Equality enshrined in the Indian Constitution (that all citizens were equal and would have equal access to facilities available within India),
they had got in touch with foreign forces that wanted to destroy India and its democracy,
they had also included Indian politicians who disliked India, and these motives had led to the events of Sept 11, 2001.
If the above were untrue, Antara wouldn't have to spend decades watching others (including her spouse) work as a journalist, file their income tax returns, go and conduct official business at banks, fill in paperwork while Antara stood at one side, meek and defeated with eyes downcast, because lack of Aadhaar, denial of Aadhaar had made her ineligible for banking services.
In India, Antara was supposed to be the one of the first citizens to get her Aadhaar.
"Why didn't you submit a formal application to the bank, that if you excuse Aadhaar or accept any other proof of her citizenship, my wife Antara could also partake in banking activities?" Antara had asked her spouse on July 15, 2025. "The particular bank branch would just forward it to their zonal headquarters, at least there would be a written word that a system put in place because of the 9/11 attacks was causing inconvenience?"
"Have you gone insane? Aadhaar was everything to India, it was the most important document, it was the eternal document, it was the Holy Grail, it was as per RBI regulations. Do you know how furious the banks in India would become if a single criticism of Aadhaar was heard in any part of India?" the spouse had replied.
"But they didn't give Aadhaar to everyone, didn't it make Aadhaar an instrument of oppression and discrimination?" Antara had said.
"You have to keep applying dozens of times, hundreds of times, till they give it to you. Gita-mashi had said (Supriya Paul's friend), never stop applying, always apply."
Antara didn't share the information with the spouse that Aadhaar might be a document that owed its origins to Asansol AG Church, the Class of 1995, Brabourne's Hunger Strike and John Walker Lindh. It might be difficult to connect Aadhaar to the above, given much care was taken to put a decade between the 9/11 attacks and the introduction of Aadhaar but it would definitely take the 9/11 investigations forward.
It left us with two questions:
i. Neither of the two classmates from the Class of 1995 who studied medicine in Kolkata had academic brilliance. Their academic prominence began 1993 onwards, with Janet Reno and her supposed investigations of the 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch. What kind of a formidable force was Janet Reno? Would she be able to justify why there should be several grades of citizenship in India, why Aadhaar could be used for bigotry and discrimination?
"After 12 years of denying Aadhaar, even if Janet Reno had some 1923 Beer Hall Putsch blackmails, those had been exhausted, including through the Russia-Ukraine War."
ii. Both the classmates who studied medicine in Kolkata used the USGS, the likes of David Applegate and Sarah J Rykers to control banking operations in India and how Antara could be kept out of it. How could one reduce Moscow's influence within the US Geological Survey?
Antara would have to formally request to classify the United States Geological Survey as a terror organisation.
July 16, 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment