Trinamool Congress MP and the party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, has said that the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, was ‘more than serious’ about her threats about not linking Aadhaar to her mobile phone.
Speaking at Janta Ka Conclave, held in Kolkata, O’Brien said, “When Mamata di says something, she is serious about it. Not only serious, but she is more than serious about it. You know as soon as as that announcement (by Mamata Banerjee) was made, the government pushed the deadline to 31 March.”
O’Brien also revealed how the topic of Aadhaar had dominated the deliberations of the last meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs. He said that the said meeting had lasted for three-and-half hours while refusing to divulge details as this would amount to breach of privilege.
The full interview with O’Brien will be published soon.
On Monday the Supreme Court asked the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, to file a petition challenging the mandatory linking of Aadhaar cards to mobile numbers in her individual capacity.
The top court, however, issued a notice to the central government directing it to file its response on the mandatory linking of Aadhaar to mobile phones within four weeks. The court also agreed to hear the constitutional validity of Aadhaar in the last week of November.