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

Thursday, December 3, 2015

9113 - Food insecurity: Fake ration cards stump PDS dealers in Jharkhand - Hindustan Times

  • Sanjoy Dey, Hindustan Times, RanchiUpdated: Nov 28, 2015 11:03 IST

Jharkhand rolled out the ambitious NFSA in haste from October 1 this year, entitling more than 2.33 crore people of the state’s total 3.29 crore population to 5 kg rice and wheat every month at the subsidised rate of Re 1. Photo for representative purpose. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The Jharkhand government’s hastily rolled out National Food Security Act (NFSA) suffered a major blow after several incidents of multiple fake ration cards being issued to the same person surfaced, creating a dilemma for dealers under the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Jharkhand rolled out the ambitious NFSA in haste from October 1 this year, entitling more than 2.33 crore people of the state’s total 3.29 crore population to 5 kg rice and wheat every month at the subsidised rate of Re 1.

With alleged pressure from the state government, the Department of Food and Public Distribution prepared and digitised ration cards in haste to set the scheme rolling. As a result, thousands of fake cards were released without check.

The extent of the problem can be gauged from the case of Chittaranjan Mahto, a resident of Bundu block in Ranchi district, in whose name 366 ration cards had inadvertently been issued by the district supply office, which entitled him to an extraordinary 1,830 kg of food grains from five different PDS dealers a month.

However, Ranchi supply officer Manoj Kumar termed it a technical error: “We have withheld the excess cards. In bulk publication of ration cards, there is always a chance of error of at least 5%.”

Mahto is not the only one to have multiple cards issued — there are thousands of beneficiaries in Jharkhand under the newly introduced NFSA who are enjoying more than one ration card in their name. The Ranchi district supply office alone has reportedly prepared 7,000 duplicate cards.

“We are really confused. Some of the beneficiaries are holding more than one card with different serial numbers. We lift food grain on the basis of ration cards registered with us. Now, we are in dilemma whether a beneficiary will get ration for one or more cards,” said Sanjay Kundu, a PDS dealer in Ranchi.

Kundu, also the state general secretary of Fair Price Dealers Association, added that fake ration cards have deprived many genuine beneficiaries of their rights.

Sexagenarian Lajrus Bara, a rickshaw puller, is one such victim. A resident of Ward No 10 in Ranchi, Bara was a Below Poverty Line (BPL) cardholder under the previous system. However, he is left running from pillar to post to get the digitised card under the new system.

Gopinath Ghosh, a Ranchi-based human rights activist, said, “We have hundreds of names of such people who had BPL cards in the earlier system but are not even enrolled under the NFSA.”

The department of food and civil supplies has so far detected more than 17,000 fake ration cards just from Hazaribag and Ranchi districts. “The fault was detected by our team and we have restricted the distribution of duplicate cards. More than 10,000 such cards were withheld in Hazaribag. Other districts have also detected such faults,” department secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey said.


The department is now linking ration cards to Aadhaar card numbers to eliminate duplicity. “We have linked around 70 lakh beneficiaries with Aadhaar, though the process has partially slowed down due to the ongoing panchayat election,” Choubey said.