Swamy finds compulsory linking of Aadhaar a threat to national security

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday said that compulsory linking of Aadhaar was a threat to national security and expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will strike down the government directions making it mandatory for availing various services.

"I am writing a letter soon to PM detailing how compulsory Aadhaar is a threat to our national security. SC will I am sure strike it down," Swamy said in a tweet.

The Supreme Court had on Monday said a five-judge constitution bench would hear a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Aadhaar law on charges of being intrusive and violating the right to privacy.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the hearing on the petitions challenging the government move would take place in the last week of November.

The court said this after Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the bench that the government had filed a detailed affidavit refuting all the allegations on expanding the area under Aadhaar linkage.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had earlier this week accused the Modi government of using Aadhaar as a "monitoring mechanism" and said it will have serious consequences.

He had said the Aadhaar programme, which was initiated by the Congress-led UPA government, was designed to be a supporting mechanism and not a monitoring mechanism.