As AAdhar related discussions heat up in the press parallel to the case hearing in Supreme court, our woes become more existential: are we or are we not of here. sigh

Technically being NRIs for last 12 years we are not eligible to apply for AAdhar. In spite of the court decision that AAdhar should be voluntary for everything except government subsidies or schemes, the ground reality is that we cannot move an inch without it.

The first major impediment was getting mobile phones. Getting a sim card needs AAdhar number for verification. When we visited India previously, we borrowed sims from relatives for temporary use. Now that we are here for the long haul it is proving to be difficult. The sim is registered to a specific person. The number is then connected to a variety of services along the way making it the most important number in your daily life, sometimes more so than the AAdhar number. sigh. (More about mobile as identity number here). Aadhar being mandatory for buying a sim was touted as the Supreme court mandate since 2015. The recent AAdhar court proceedings have clarified that the court never mandated any such thing. AAdhar fiasco continues. sigh. Read about it here. So probably the next time we get a new sim we might be able to get it without Aadhar.

In spite of the supreme court rulling that AAdhar should not be mandatory, ground realities are quite different. AAdhar photocopy is one of the items on the list of mandatory paperwork for cooking gas connection. Cooking gas involves government subsidy thus the need for AAdhar. However, you can give up the subsidy voluntarily. There are posters all over the gas agency proding you to give up the claim on subsidy if you can afford it so that the funds can be used for more underserved families. Technically if you are not availing the subsidy you should not need the AAdhar card but that point is lost on the paper pushers in the agency.  The subsidy is deposited in your AAdhar linked bank account. Being an NRI on paper, technically we cannot have AAdhar or a resident bank account. The most generous offer then is to buy gas cylinders on the black market.

As per the residency rules we are still NRIs. For banking purposes we have NRI accounts that have limitations. For more useful and practical resident accounts we need AAdhar. There was a stay on mandatory linking of bank accounts and credit cards but the rule is not applicable for opening new bank accounts or credit cards. I fail to see the logic of this rulling. Once I give Aadhar number to open an account, the rulling about ‘linking AAdhar not mandatory’ is a moot point. The NRI limbo continues as we try to find solutions in other NRI banking accounts. Being Non Resident Indians we are expected to have a residential address outside India where all the paperwork and cards will be delivered. We do not have any such address. We do have a residential address in India but we cannot use that for NRI account neither can we open a new resident account with that address without AAdhar.

Now I understand perfectly the plight of Trishanku hanging between two worlds.