The pledges of the delivery of social welfare schemes around election time have received considerable attention. However, some elections saw something peculiar. In 2023, the parties seeking to win power in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh led an unscrupulous form-filling exercise prior to the polls. The Congress, through its proposed Nari Samman Yojana in Madhya Pradesh, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, through its Mahtari Vandana Yojana in Chhattisgarh, announced various benefits for women voters. Then both parties circulated forms to be filled out by eligible women beneficiaries. These forms required citizens to supply their personal data, including declarations regarding employment, income, caste, and other details.
Interestingly, the parties promising the above benefits were not in power in the respective states. The Congress was in power in Chhattisgarh, where the BJP floated the Mahtari Vandana Yojana scheme. In Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress distributed the Nari Samman Yojana forms, the BJP was in power. Therefore, the entities collecting data through the forms were not the respective state governments. The benefits were to be delivered by the state government if these parties were to be elected. So what were the safeguards adopted by these parties during the collection of data? Was there a guarantee that the data collected would be used for a legitimate purpose?
The Congress did not win power in Madhya Pradesh. Therefore, we have no information regarding how the data collected by it were used. But in Chhattisgarh, the BJP did come to power and implement the promised scheme. But the Chhattisgarh government sought Aadhaar-linked data from the beneficiaries for them to be able to enrol themselves in the scheme and verify their eligibility. If the data on the beneficiaries had to be collected again, what was the need to collect data through the forms earlier?
When data are collected by governments for delivering benefits through Aadhaar, the Aadhaar Act 2016 provides the necessary legal framework, prescribing limitations on the processing of the data, identifying measures for their protection, and providing redressal against breaches in the use of such data. But can political parties be held accountable similarly? The Supreme Court has recognised that all individuals have a fundamental right to privacy of their information. In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) versus Union of India (II), it also recognised Aadhaar to be a legitimate framework for seeking personal information to provide the targeted delivery of social welfare schemes. But the collection, use, and processing of data by political parties for a similar purpose have evaded scrutiny.
India has been making various advances concerning data protection and privacy. But the use of the personal data of individuals by political parties and its implications are hardly at the centre of anyone’s attention. All parties seem to prefer silence on this issue. The socio-economic caste census had sought caste-related data from individuals. However, the collected data were not published citing the lack of reliability of the information and the difficulty in classifying castes.
Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, who had led the fight to get the right to privacy recognised as a fundamental right, died in October. The litigation led by him had even questioned the use of Aadhaar for the delivery of social welfare schemes. Acknowledging its limitations, the government designed appropriate safeguards around Aadhaar. Thereafter, the Supreme Court held it to be legitimate. The ongoing, brazen collection of personal data by political parties under the garb of social welfare is a disservice to Justice Puttaswamy’s legacy.
Kashish Makkar is a data protection and privacy lawyer. Views are personal