In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

8824 - Burdwan blast accused got Aadhaar, election card - The Hindu

NEW DELHI, October 5, 2015
Updated: October 5, 2015 05:46 IST


Burdwan blast accused got Aadhaar, election card

Tarikul Islam, the Bangladeshi terrorist arrested in connection with Burdwan blast, is believed to have acquired Aadhaar card and Voter I Card to project himself as an Indian citizenship and avoid being arrested by the NIA, official sources said here on Sunday.

Even after he was picked up by the NIA last week from Jharkhand, he had been maintaining that he was not involved in the blast, they said.

However, after his finger prints matched with one of the crime scene preserved by the NIA, he started spilling some of the beans about his association with banned Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror group, the sources said.

He claimed during interrogation that he had been jailed in Bangaldesh prison for five years where he met Sheikh Rahamatullah alias Sajid, the mastermind of JMB terror group, and his radicalisation process begun, the sources said.
This information has been shared with Bangladesh authorities to ascertain the veracity of his claim, they added.

Indoctrination
He crossed over to India in 2012 for indoctrination of youth in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar for recruiting them in the terror group with an aim of destalising Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh and enforce Sharia-based Islamic rule “through violent terrorist acts”.

For the purpose of establishing his credentials as an Indian, he claimed to have bribed local election and Aaadhaar card officials to procure the same, the sources said.

He also married an Indian girl who was minor at that time, they said, adding that the wedding was solemnised at Simulia madrasa in Burdwan, West Bengal where the terrorist training camps were organised by JMB.

His wife along with an eight-month old baby and his brother-in-law are missing from the day he was arrested from Jharkhand.
Islam, who was arrested from Ramgarh district of Jharkhand by a team of NIA and Anti-Terror Squad of the Jharkhand police, carried a cash reward of Rs. 5 lakh as he is alleged to be an important member of ‘Shoora’, the decision-making body of JMB. He is in the NIA custody till October nine.

NIA has already charge-sheeted him for his alleged role in the Burdwan blast which occurred in a house on October 2 last year, leaving two persons dead.

During investigation of the case, NIA claimed that Islam was a part of larger conspiracy of JMB to organise terror attacks in Bangladesh and in India and had been frequently entering India illegally, at different times since the year 2008-2009.

NIA took over the case from West Bengal police a few days after the explosion on October 2 when international links started emerging. Investigators have found that improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were being fabricated in the house where the explosion took place and later smuggled to Bangladesh.

NIA has so far found that members of JMB has established a network in different places like Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, Birbhum, Burdwan in West Bengal and Barpetta in Assam, Sahibganj and Pakur in Jharkhand.

In its charge sheet filed in March this year, NIA claimed to have busted an international conspiracy of JMB which wanted to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Sheikh Hasina “through violent terrorist acts and replace it with a hard-line Sharia based Islamic rule, which came to light after the accidental blast.” - PTI