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

Monday, February 15, 2016

9368 - Digital 'consent architecture' could make getting loans easier: Nilekani by Harichandan Arakali - Forbes India

UPFRONT/SPECIAL | Feb 13, 2016 | 2306 views

Digital 'consent architecture' could make getting loans easier: Nilekani

by Harichandan Arakali

This would allow lenders to legally access, in digital form, the financial transactions history of potential borrowers



Image: Jagadeesh Nv / Reuters


Nandan Nilekani is the former chairman of the Unique ID Authority of India


A perennial problem for small businesses and startups in India is access to capital, especially for ongoing business operations, even when payments from buyers are imminent.

This problem could be ameliorated to a certain extent by a digital "consent architecture" that might soon be in place in the country, which would allow lenders to legally access, in digital form, the financial transactions history of potential borrowers, Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique ID Authority of India, told reporters in Bangalore on Saturday.

Nilekani was speaking at a press conference as part of a workshop on India's Unique Payments Interface organised by the National Payments Corporation of India, or NPCI, which is inviting software developers to build mobile apps and online programmes that would tap into the interface.

"As more and more payments become digital, then it creates a digital footprint of your (financial) activity and then you can give consent to say that a bank can use my digital footprint to give me a loan," Nilekani said.

While UPI, which is part of the financial backbone that NPCI has built to facilitate retail money transactions, is not directly addressing this task, India will soon have a consent architecture, which can tap into this growing digital footprint of financial transactions.

"I, as a user, can authorise my digital footprint to go to a lender, who can use it to check my activities and based on that give me a loan," he said. While it's not directly part of UPI, "it's a layer on top of UPI, which we hope will be developed in the coming months."

NPCI has partnered with the Indian Software Product Round Table to organise a hackathon to get developers interested in building apps and programmes to use the Unique Payments Interface. Among those who participated on Saturday, when the month-long hackathon was opened for registration, were developers and product managers from the biggest e-commerce companies doing business in India, including Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and others, A.P. Hota, chief executive of NPCI said.

NPCI is providing what are called application programme interfaces or APIs to developers, which would allow them to build apps that can talk to the backbone network operated by NPCI. This would in turn allow consumers and merchants alike to make and get payments using smartphones and by providing either the Aadhaar unique ID number or a virtual payments address that can be generated on a one-time basis from the bank of one's choice.

NPCI is also rolling out the facility of receiving money on its immediate payment system (IMPS) platform, using Aadhaar or the virtual payments address, while so far IMPS has only been used in a "push" form to send money. So, be it school fees or vendor payments, any user with a virtual payment address can send it to another user and ask for money to be sent to that ID.

This will start rolling out from April 8, and 29 banks have partnered NPCI in the first phase, Hota said. NPCI expects to partner more banks, and eventually independent mobile wallet providers as well. NPCI and iSPIRT will also identify some of the best apps and solutions developed in the hackathon by then, Sharad Sharma, one of the founders of the sofwtare products round table said at the press conference. iSPIRT, which is conducting the online hackathon, expects about 1,000 contestants, he said.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/special/digital-consent-architecture-could-make-getting-loans-easier-nilekani/42307/1#ixzz40C6XsUFz

9367 - Work culture - Daily Excelsior


Posted on 14/02/2016 by Dailyexcelsior


Work culture in our offices and state organizations is abysmally disappointing. The notion that the Government cannot dismiss an employee is a dangerous notion that is at the root of inefficiency, incompetence and non-punctuality. The worse is when authorities look to other side when a subordinate willfully transgresses the rules and becomes a law unto self. The work culture prevailing now in Government offices is akin to somebody going to an excursion to enjoy a few chats with colleagues, a few puffs of cigarette, a few jokes nasty and indecent, a few backbites and a couple of negative entries in the files.

A small measure has been attempted by the Government to bring about a change in this culture. In order to ensure punctuality and promote transparency and efficiency in its offices and establishments, Government has decided to switch over to the Aadhaar Based Biometric System on or before March 31, 2016 and detailed directions have been issued to all the concerned for strict compliance.

According to the directions issued by the General Administration Department, no salary or wages would be drawn in favour of the Government employees of any category for the month of March 2016 onwards unless they have enrolled themselves in the Aadhaar Based Biometric System. This condition also applies to the PSU employees, contractual, consolidated and casual workers drawing wages in any form from the public exchequer. 

Administrative Secretaries/ HoDs and DDOs of various departments/corporations shall ensure installations of desktop based Aadhaar Based Biometric Attendance System/ Machines in their respective offices at an earliest and Information Technology Department and NIC Centers in each district have been directed to provide necessary guidance and support for implementation This order applies to the pensioners also who have get themselves registered with the nearest Common Service Centre/ Khidmat Centre or any other place having the facility.

Aadhaar Based Biometric Attendance System is becoming common for Government and even private organizations. The reports are that the system has improved punctuality among the functionaries and consequently the work output has increased. In normal course of things, the system should become successful in our State also. But it is yet too early to draw conclusion. Essentially it is the sense of responsibility and moral duty that play the decisive role for any functionary. We know of hundreds and thousand of functionalities who have rarely missed reporting to office in time and leaving the office in time. But then there are irresponsible functionaries and they are the stumbling block in good governance. We appreciate the Government has come out with a devise to improve the system and we shall watch with eagerness to see how far the system succeeds.

9366 - Fake Aadhaar racket busted, 3 arrested - TNN

TNN | Feb 14, 2016, 12.18 PM IST

Mohali: Three accused were arrested for creating fake Aadhaar cards in Phase VIII on late Friday evening. Accused have been identified as Balwinder Kumar, his accomplice Bobby Sharma, resident of Kashmir and Aashiq Hussain from Kashmir's Doda district. Sources said that the accused were in the business of making fake government documents for over two years and had created more than 100 fake Aadhaar cards. They were caught red-handed after a tip-off.

A laptop and a printer were seized. Sources told that the accused charged up to Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 for creating the fake Aadhaar cards and assured people that the card was authentic and records were uploaded on the website. Sub-inspector Sikander Singh said, "We have booked the accused under sections 420, 465, 467, 468 and 120B of IPC and they have been sent in police remand."

9365 - Aadhaar abuse - Greater Kashmir

Type it in Urdu, your name is mud

AJAZ UL HAQUE 
Srinagar, Publish Date: Feb 13 2016 9:39PM | Updated Date: Feb 13 2016 9:39PM

Log in to the Aadhaar card software programme. Type your name see what does it read in Urdu. Infact see what happens to it when it's rendered in Urdu.

A lucky few see it correctly scripted, the rest are amused. What pops up is a word you might not have seen or read ever. As if monkeys have hammered on the keyboard of a character generator and you are seeing a queer combination of Greek, Latin and Sanskrit put together. Your name falls apart and you are renamed something too amorphous to be called a name. You are – to say the least – molested. 

Software experts say it happens with Urdu only. Can it be a mere incident or the fault is deliberate. Well, reading a conspiracy theory will be too hasty a conclusion, but the question remains. If the whole language software is corrupt, why does it effect Urdu only? In the first place how could it be allowed to operate in a state where the card-holders are predominantly Urdu readers. In a communally polarised nation, even if it's an error, it will be perceived as a plan. In a (now called) Modi-fied India, where plans are afoot to change the minority status of reputed educational institutions, Urdu abuse can't necessarily be an accident. 

`Aadhaar' is a revolutionary concept, thoroughly conceived and meticulously executed. Why doesn't  it occur to the concerned language software experts? Didn't they know that a substantial population of India want their English names to be written in Urdu. And when the very software denies to render your english letters in correct Urdu, where lies the problem? Does it require another revolution to create an Urdu data-base or the problem is of ordinary nature just allowed to persist. If it's an error it needs to be rectified. If it's deliberate, the responsibility must be fixed. 


The issue is not emotional or jingoistic, the issue is rational. By fouling the very language you are smearing the identity of a people. As an individual, you won't like to see a comic distortion of your name. Misnaming is construed as insult. This one is an insult to a community. If it happens with every other Indian language, then the problem is general. If it's Urdu specific, Urdu-targeted (which it seems to be), then  it demands attention. We don't mean inciting people in the name of language, we just seek a solution to a problem which – by all standards of logic – is a problem. If you are reviewing other aspects of Aadhaar, review this first. Set right the basics. 


9364 - PIL challenges Govt move to make Aadhaar mandatory - Greater Kashmir



Citing the Supreme Court order that the government cannot deny service to anyone who does not possess Aadhaar as it is voluntary, the PIL seeks directions for making Aadhar non- compulsory for Salaries, Pensions, honorarium, LPG subsidies and other such beneficial entitlements.

D A RASHID 
Srinagar, Publish Date: Feb 13 2016 11:08PM | Updated Date: Feb 13 2016 11:08PM


File Photo

A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in Jammu and Kashmir High Court challenging the state government’s move making it mandatory for its citizens including employees to obtain Aadhaar card, in contravention of the Supreme Court ruling. 

Citing the Supreme Court order that the government cannot deny service to anyone who does not possess Aadhaar as it is voluntary, the PIL seeks directions for making Aadhar non- compulsory for Salaries, Pensions, honorarium, LPG subsidies and other such beneficial entitlements.

“The Government order no: 35-F of 2016, dated 10.02.2016 is directly in violation and contravention of the various direction issued by Supreme Court declaring that Aadhar is a voluntary Scheme and should not be made mandatory or compulsory, ” the petitioners plead. 

Petitioners Syed Musaib and Gulbaddin Ahmad Mir through the PIL seek to stay the government order whereby the state government has made it mandatory for all the government employees to get themselves registered for Aadhaar card or their salaries would be stopped from March this year.

On February 10, the Finance Department vide order number 35 of 2016, has made the Aadhaar based biometric system compulsory for employees of Jammu and Kashmir government.
“The State of Jammu & Kashmir has only 46.9% Aadhar enrollment, which is amongst the lowest number of Aadhar card holders in the entire country. Hence, such impugned government order is illogical and has been passed without any application of mind” the petitioners plead.

“Aadhar Scheme infringes the Right of Privacy and the same is subject matter of five Judge Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court. Such impugned government order undermines and prejudices the case in hand before the Supreme Court as well” they plead. 

“The impugned government order suffers from infirmity with respect to the Constitution of India as rest of the citizen of the country in all other parts are exempted from compulsory disclosure and in the state of Jammu & Kashmir people are forced to disclose private information under the cloak of Aadhar Scheme,” the PIL reads. 

“ There have been various media reports earlier as well at present, that depict harassment on part of various government department towards the innocent masses on account of Aadhar being mandatory,” the PIL states. 

Pointing out that Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a central government agency was established on January 28, 2009 after the Planning Commission of India issued a notification, the petitioners plead that that UIDAI’s basic objective was to collect the biometric and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralized database, and issue a 12-digit unique identity number called Aadhar.

“The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in December-2011, led by Yashwant Sinha, rejected the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 in its then present form and suggested modifications. It termed the project "unethical and volatile of Parliament's prerogatives", they plead.
The petitioners plead that in an interim order on a PIL against Adhar card, the apex court observed that the government cannot deny a service to anyone who does not possess Aadhaar, as it is voluntary.

“The Supreme Court had directed the government to widely publicize in print and electronic media that Aadhaar is not mandatory for any welfare scheme. The Court also referred the petitions claiming Aadhaar is unconstitutional and infringes right of privacy matter to a Constitutional Bench,” they said. 
The PIL will come up for hearing, if approved by Chief Justice of J&K High court.

9363 - Aadhaar card proof of residence: DC

Posted at: Feb 14, 2016, 0:56 AM

Ludhiana, February 13

Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat has issued fresh instructions that the Aadhaar card would be considered as proof of residence for making a driving licence.

Residents have been facing problems as the DTO staff have refused to consider the card as proof of residence. They ask applicants to furnish additional proof of residence besides their Aadhaar cards.


Meanwhile, District Transport Officer Dalwinderjit Singh said additional proof of residence was not asked for in all cases. The staff could have asked applicants to furnish the same in special cases. He said he had again directed the staff to accept the Aadhaar card as proof of residence. — TNS

Sunday, February 14, 2016

9362 - 'State must ensure poor get NFSA benefits' - The Statesman


SNS
| Bhubaneswar | 13 February, 2016


Ram Vilas Paswan (PIB)

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said the NFSA will be implemented by the remaining six states in April, ration cards will be linked to Aadhar cards and so on, but he went on to concede that there were several complaints of irregularities in implementation and the centre can do very little about these things. 

It is up to the state government to check corruption and ensure that the poor get the benefit as the objective of the NFSA is to check bogus cards and beneficiaries and plug loopholes in distribution. 

Implicitly taking a dig at the state government, he said, “They claim to provide rice free of cost or at Rs.1 per kg. The message given is that the state government is doing so whereas the fact is that the central subsidy is Rs.27 per kg and the state subsidy is barely Rs.2 or Rs.1 per kg. 

“In a federal structure, the centre cannot intervene on matters pertaining to digitised ration cards being issued to ineligible people, of the Food Commission, vigilance committees etc not being formed etc. But we will certainly forward all such complaints to the state government,” he said. 

Asked what action would be taken if the six states which are yet to implement the NFSA are unable to meet the April deadline, Paswan said the matter is pending disposal of the apex court. 
What can the centre to at the most it can stop supply of food grains, but then the people will suffer, he observed while insisting that the role of the centre ends at the FCI godown. 
It is the responsibility of the state government to ensure proper distribution to genuine beneficiaries, he added. 

Highlighting the achievements of his ministry, he said, “99.9 per cent of ration cards ( with the exception of two districts in Himachal Pradesh) have been digitized. Over 42 per cent of the ration cards have been even linked with Aadhaar cards and point of sale devices to keep electronic record of allocation to the beneficiary have been installed in over 77,000 ration shops.”

He said during the ongoing khareef season huge paddy procurement of 261.37 lakh tone has been procured till Thursday. Direct Cash Transfer of food subsidy to beneficiaries has been launched in Chandigarh and Puducherry on an experimental basis since September last year, he noted. 
He said steps to create a 1.5 lakh metric tonne buffer stock of pulses has been planned and FCI has started procurement operations. 

The drop in international prices of imported oils was affecting prices of domestically produced edible oils, he said adding that the import duty on such items had been increased to protect the farmer. 

Reform measures have been introduced in FCI and it has been asked to construct modern silos for storage of 100 lakh MT capacity at different locations on PPP mode. 

A time bound construction plan has been put in place, stated Paswan. 

Despite the deficit monsoon over the last two years, there is more than adequate foodgrain stock, he said.


Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/odisha/-state-must-ensure-poor-get-nfsa-benefits/123216.html#LHOpIXQAKIsTF0Q3.99

9361 - CS asks DCs to start distributing e-ration tickets - Daily Excelsior


Posted on 13/02/2016 by Dailyexcelsior

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 12: Chief Secretary, B R Sharma today conveyed his appreciation to the Deputy Commissioners and CA&PD field functionaries for achieving substantial progress in getting ready for National Food Security Act (NFSA) rollout.

In a video conference with DCs held here, Chief Secretary said that with most of the districts having uploaded the data on the National Portal, DCs should now get ready for printing and then distributing e-Ration tickets to the households. “Rollout and publicize a schedule and in presence of Panchayat members (Gram Sabha) start distributing the e-ration tickets to households after mandatory cross checks”, Chief Secretary said, adding that supervisory staff be immediately deployed for the purpose.

” During the distribution phase, if a e-ration ticket is found to have some error, the ticket should be received back from the beneficiary against a proper receipt to rectify the error”, Chief Secretary instructed.

Chief Secretary asked DCs to expedite the process of Aadhaar seeding in the database of e-ration cards under ERCMS portal of CA&PD Department. “Aadhaar seeding will ensure de-duplication of beneficiaries and will significantly contribute towards cent percent fidelity of data”, Chief Secretary noted.

He also urged DCs to share experiences with each other and contribute towards further improving the process of NFSA implementation.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary also reviewed the status of ration availability in the districts especially in far flung areas. He asked CA&PD department to ensure that adequate stock of ration is maintained in all districts.

Secretary CA&PD, Saurabh Bhagat, Director CA&PD Jammu, Director CA&PD, Kashmir and other officers were also present.

9360 - Child Care Database to go Online in Bengaluru - New Indian Express

By Express News Service
Published: 13th February 2016 04:54 AM

BENGALURU: To monitor Child Care Institutions, the District Child Protection Unit Bengaluru has come up with a design for an extensive online database.

As part of this, the NGOs are required to furnish all the background information of their institution and of the children staying under their protection.

This will be hosted on the official website of the DWCD. Not just this, they will be required to update the information every three months.

The crucial part of this feature is that it mandates the child care institutions to provide information on where they have sourced the children from and who are the people approaching the institution with children. This would help them bust trafficking of children.

District Child Protection Officer Divya Narayanappa told Express that the identity of the children would be protected and the online database would not be accessible to general public.
Each institution will be given a key to access their file and update it regularly. Only the DCPU officials will have access to it.

Aadhaar Enrolment
Another measure being adopted to keep track of children is to secure Aadhaar numbers for them. Last year, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) began a drive for giving Aadhaar numbers to children in government homes. DCPU officials said all the children in government homes had secured Aadhaar numbers and now they were extending the same facility to all the CCIs. So far, enrollment for Aadhaar has begun in 22 CCIs in the city and it would be extended to more. 

Pan India tracking
The Centre has initiated a pan-India exercise to track orphanages and identify children staying in these institutions. Under the guidance of Childline India Foundation, the Integrated Child Protection Scheme wing in the Department of Women and Child Development is monitoring the programme in State. According to the officials, letters have been issued in this regard to every district and the survey would begin soon.

Need for Orphanage  Concept Questioned

The question, “Why do we need the concept of an orphanage?” itself is up for debate. Many people who find it altruistic opine that it is time to redefine the concept. Vasudeva Sharma, Executive Director of city-based NGO Child Rights Trust told Express that until recently people did not ask many questions about orphanages as it was assumed that it was done for a social cause. “People used to fund them. Slowly some people have started using it for self-centered purposes,” he said. 

Further, the general consensus among child rights activists and officials is that there are no “orphans”-- the extended family is always around. More importantly, activists say that a majority of the children in orphanages have parents. Gopinath of Sparsha Trust said that in two decades of his experience in the field, he has not met more than 25 children, who do not have anyone to fall back on. This prompts another question: Are orphanages required? Here, Sharma emphasised on the importance of child care institutions. “There is a need for these institutions. However, the accommodation should not be for an indefinite period but only until the children are safely repatriated to their family and surroundings,” he said.

9359 - Plastic cards may soon go out of fashion - The Hindu

NEW DELHI, February 13, 2016


AP

The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) project was initiated last February by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. Photo shows an Apple official demonstrating the company's Apple Pay mobile payment system.

Very soon, carrying multiple plastic cards may be unnecessary when you go shopping as your mobile phone would be all you need to transact. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and software product think tank ISpirt are ready for the technical launch of a new Unified Payment Interface, that would allow people to people or P2P transactions from any bank account to another, using a mobile phone app.

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who is now an advisor to the NPCI, told The Hindu that this inter-operable mobile payments system would revolutionise the way P2P payments are made.

"Think about it as introducing the equivalent of the roaming facility for mobile phones, for your bank account," Mr Nilekani said, adding that eventually the system would allow mobile to mobile payments (without any bank accounts involved) and payments to an Aadhaar number or a virtual address if people are not comfortable sharing their bank account details.

The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) project was initiated last February by Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, and over the past year, the application program interface (API) has been developed that allows payments from any bank account to another.

The technical launch of the interface, built on an open source framework, is in Bangalore on Saturday. Over 500 representatives from startups, banks, and venture capital funds keen on exploring possibilities it throws up for new applications, are likely to attend.

“The UPI is a new layer on top of the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) that has been used by banks for electronic fund transfers for about five years. This will allow seamless, inter-bank connection using a mobile app that can be used to pay merchants as well as make other ‘proximity payments’ on an offline basis,” said Mr Nilekani, who is the mastermind behind Aadhaar and was the first chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.

“There is a very simple API that would provide for both push and pull payments. So I can send money to you or you can send me a request to pay, as merchants may do if I buy something from them. I can approve the request on my phone,” Mr Nilekani explained.

“This is a big leap from the old system for credentials, where you give your card to the merchant and there is a security risk. In this model, everything happens through your own phone, your credentials are established and payment is approved,” he said, adding that many new phones come with biometric iris or fingerprint scanners so Aadhaar authentication is possible on these devices.

“A billion people can use this, it’s completely open so it is critical for India’s digital independence. We saw in the net neutrality debate that increasingly, you will end up with large players becoming gatekeepers. With an open stack, even a two-person startup in a garage can create a payment product as good as Apple Pay,” he stressed.

Mr Nilekani expects a billion people to have Aadhaar numbers by this March or April (from 970 million as of now) and said the entry of 21 new banks and the surge in smart phones and bank accounts offers the potential to build all sorts of apps.

“The UPI has a level playing field with no gatekeepers. We can use it to fundamentally change the way we do business or improve any government service or process,” adding that the UPI could do to P2P transactions what direct benefits transfer has done for government to people transactions.

9358 - Bid to make Aadhaar card must for government benefits - TNN

Mahendra Singh | TNN | Feb 13, 2016, 06.19 AM IST

NEW DELHI: In a move to give the Aadhar identity a statutory footing and link it to disbursal of central subsidies and assistance, the NDA government is ready with a new bill intended to accelerate its financial inclusion schemes.

With PM Narendra Modi seeing Aadhar as integral to the JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, mobile governance) trinity being envisaged to plug leakages and speed up delivery of central welfare schemes costing Rs 3.5 lakh crore, the legislation is intended to overcome legal infirmities in the unique identity programme. Some 97 crore residents have till date been enrolled under the project, which is under the Supreme Court's scrutiny. A new bill seeks to ensure stronger legal protection of Aadhaar's biometric data by incorporating privacy provisions and restricting its sharing and use. The bill will ensure that no mega databank on individuals linking various services they access is created.

The UPA-II government introduced the National Identification Authority of India (NIDAI) Bill 2010 in the Rajya Sabha to provide statutory backing to its Aadhaar scheme, but it could not get the approval of Parliament. The BJP-led government is planning to push the bill, pending in Rajya Sabha, in the coming budget session of Parliament with amendments to address legal issues and data security as raised in a PIL in Supreme Court. 

Though the government is yet to finalise its stand whether to get the same bill passed or to move new amendments, there is strong indication that the Centre may push the legislation as a money bill in the coming session to ensure that a logjam in Parliament does not block its JAM initative. A money bill can't be blocked in Rajya Sabha where the ruling dispensation lacks numbers.

The Aadhaar (Delivery of Benefits, Subsidies and Services) Bill 2016, which is likely to replace pending NIDAI Bill, could help the government counter concerns raised about issue of privacy and data security. The fresh legislation provides for proof of Aadhaar number as a condition for receipt of benefit and subsidy funded by the Consolidated Fund of India. The attorney general has given his opinion that the new bill can be introduced as a money bill as per the Constitution.


Saturday, February 13, 2016

9357 - Britain's Home Secretary is about to be grilled by a committee over her new spying laws - Business Insider



SAM SHEAD0JAN 13, 2016, 04.29 PM



Reuters
Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May.



Home Secretary Theresa May will put forward the case for introducing new UK spy laws this afternoon when she addresses a parliamentary committee in Westminster.

The Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the snooper's charter by critics, wasunveiled by the Tory government last November and is currently being reviewed by a joint committee made up of 14 MPs and peers.
May's appearance before the committee comes a week after Silicon Valley heavyweights including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple urged the UK government not to follow through with the bill as it stands. The companies want to protect their users' privacy and are therefore reluctant to sign up to a number of proposals in the 299-page bill, including bulk surveillance, weaker encryption, and measures that could force them to hack their own customers.
Former NSA technical director William Binney also criticised the bill last week, saying mass surveillance does not work as intelligence agencies become overwhelmed by too much information.
The committee will ask whether the Home Secretary is confident that the current definition of an "internet connection record" is sufficiently clear for the internet service providers, which will be tasked with retaining them for 12 months.
According to a page on the committee's website, May is also likely to be asked:
  • Does the value of communications data outweighs the privacy risks associated with the accessing of such data?
  • Why does the current definition of telecommunications providers and services potentially include Wi-Fi services operated by coffee shops and hotels, and do you think it should?
  • On what basis does the Home Office believe that the bulk powers will be seen as legal in the context of recent EU Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights decisions?
  • Should communications data definitions be specified further?
  • Why does the draft bill weaken the protection given to journalistic sources under PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence) Act and the Terrorism Act?
May's appearance this afternoon also comes after the Home Office rejected a Freedom of Information Act request from The Independent newspaper to see the Home Secretary's online history, including every email the home secretary sent, every Skype call she made and every website she visited during October and November.

Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, is quoted in The Guardian saying: "Theresa May wants access to our entire web browsing histories, what she calls 'internet connection records', but when the public asks to see hers the Home Office decides that the request is vexatious. I would argue that her policy is not only vexatious but Orwellian."

9356 - An NSA whistleblower just told government that mass surveillance doesn't work -Business Insider

Sam Shead0Jan 6, 2016, 08.47 PM


Former NSA director William Binney in Laura Poitras's short video 'The Program'.

William Binney, the former technical director of the NSA, today warned a UK parliamentary committee that proposed mass surveillance laws will damage the country's national security.

The whistleblower - who resigned from the controversial US spying agency during the Bush era after more than 30 years in the job - told a joint parliamentary committee in London today that the bulk surveillance permitted under the draft Investigatory Powers Bill will lead to more terror fatalities.
Home Secretary Theresa May introduced the Investigatory Powers Bill in November 2015 as a means of lawfully tracking and identifying terrorists, paedophiles and other serious criminals.

Binney's argument is based on the fact that MI5, MI6, and GCHQ will be overwhelmed with too much information, meaning they are unable to spot potential attacks.

"My big objection with NSA, GCHQ and all the associated law enforcement agencies is around bulk acquisition of data of any type," Binney told the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill Select Committee. "I was in charge of 6000 analysts at the NSA. GCHQ and NSA collaborate very closely. Our biggest problem was we had too much info. The IP Bill should focus on terminating bulk acquisition."

Binney said security analysts have failed consistently since 9/11 as a result of mass surveillance. He believes security agencies instead need to focus on watching known targets.

Public attitudes to surveillance
Polling organisation YouGov has been surveying the UK for years about attitudes to surveillance, and the answer always comes back the same: The public supports surveillance. In fact, British people want more of it, not less.

In January 2015, YouGov published the results of a survey on the UK's perception of surveillance. It found that 53% of people supported increased surveillance.


The same survey found that 63% of people trusted the intelligence services to do the right thing (29% of people did not trust them).

9355 - ‘Free Basics’ is a threat to national security - The Guardian



Free Basics is no longer a discussion of net neutrality alone. It is a matter of grave national security requiring the attention of the Prime Minister himself.



MODERN TROJAN HORSES
If Rupert Murdoch were to offer free newspapers, with news of his choosing only, to the media-deprived millions, would you call it an act of charity? If he were to call it as Free Essentials for the billion deprived of print essentials, should it be considered to be in our national interest? If he were to provide free cable TV, to the cable and education starved billion, with only those channels of his choosing, would you regard it as cable inclusion? 

If these Free Essentials were to serve the channels of commercial or geo-political interests outside India, should you regard it as a threat to our national security? If these services were to secure government endorsement by serving as a channel for the government, should the head of state regard it as benevolence or be worried about national security in a situation where the power to influence tens of millions vests offshore?

Colonisation no longer requires mortar shells or physical takeover of governments. It requires Trojan Horses in the form of software and ingenuity to control the economic, social and political engines of a country. These Trojan Horses can be more subtle than the newspapers and cable TV channels offered to provide literacy and educate the masses. Even the colonised would sing praises of the oppressor having failed to detect oppression by the Trojan Horse.

Zuckerberg’s Free Basics has exactly the characters of such a Trojan Horse. Through his Free Basics he promises access to websites of his choosing to a billion Indians. In fact access to basics that Government of India has been unable to do for all the decades since Independence. Of course, Zuckerberg would decide what is needed and how to deliver through the companies that have signed up with him. Zuckerberg’s Free Basics would also become the channel for government interaction with the people.

It does not require George Orwell’s vision of 1984 or Aldous Huxley’s dystopia of Brave New World to see what is at play. If this does not worry those charged with national security, nothing will. The nation expects Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the country does not go the way of Egypt or Ukraine

ECONOMIC, POLITICAL ESPIONAGE
For one, Free Basics is a massive real time data-mining engine. It will harvest data of all the users to the websites served by their platform and collect the information that under any other name, we would not hesitate to call corporate, political or economic espionage. Armed with such information, such entities can now target individuals, the economy, the social fabric and even the politics of the country.

Why would a charitable exercise spend more than a hundred crores in just a few days to convince people it was doing good for them? Why does this charity want to carve out, selectively, the internet rather than enable the whole internet for a few hours a week? If the use of Gmail by government babus is worrisome, the use and penetration of Free Basics into our country should worry India’s leaders even more.

Tim Berners Lee, the man who invented the worldwide web, has the vision of an open and free internet as one of a network of networks linking billions of devices, including all your computers and mobile phones to those of others across the world. He believes that the value of the internet is in the ability of someone to communicate with anyone using any media and any content. In this vision, every person has equal opportunity to interact with anyone on the internet.

This is in stark comparison to Zuckerberg’s vision of internet.org, also called Free Basics, where a few websites of his choosing will be made accessible for free through the internet.org app. The misleading begins, but does not stop at, calling itself internet.org. By slicing the internet, Zuckerberg not just shrinks the economic opportunity for the open internet, but robs it of its audience and equal access for every website on the internet. In this vision, you have the opportunity to interact with those of Facebook’s choosing and be excluded from the rest.
With Free Basics, not only will Zuckerberg be in a position to decide what you consume, but about who delivers. How benevolent is that? It is obvious that any country using this platform is at the very least writing off its trade, commerce and perhaps even manufacturing to a 300 billion dollar foreign entity. Free Basics can, then, actually facilitate for their clients the delivery or non delivery of services to individuals, groups or categories in order to wield economic or political power or to reduce such power from existing governing structures. In one stroke, not only are local businesses wiped off from the economy, but those favoured by such dystopian models get promoted. That is literally destroying the economy of a country with Free Basics.

This time it’s a modern version of the East India Company has put out a Trojan Horse disguised as a charity.

GROWING THE INTERNET
The internet has grown because it offers every website an equal opportunity to serve its customer. This agnostic approach to the media and content transported across the network was first described by Prof Tim Wu as “net neutrality”. Had the internet chosen to serve websites selectively, censor, throttle or restrict the media or content transmitted through it, as is being proposed by Free Basics, it would not have grown to the reach it has today. Restrictive business models are not disruptive ones serving the unserved or the underserved. They are destructive.
The internet has become the nervous system of the global economy. If you selectively serve, restrict, censor, throttle or restrict signals passing through your body, it will malfunction, be diseased and die. If you selectively serve, restrict, censor, throttle or restrict signals passing through the internet, it will cause malfunction, disease and death of the economy.
Countries do not need a billionaire’s subsidy, least of all from Zuckerberg, in order to ensure digital access, basics or development. Not only has the internet grown organically on its own in the rich countries, but also in those with low income. India’s story of mobile and internet penetration, even without any subsidy, is more than an impressive one. Just as the internet spread across the world at its own developmental rate, it is important to allow it to spread across the country at its own developmental rate. Accelerating its spread through forcing it into limited channels chosen from afar by huge corporate interests will only result in dystopian models that endanger national security, cause corruption and end net neutrality.
Models like Free Basics also make impossible the likelihood of each website being served equally on the internet, in other words, it destroys net-neutrality. Without net neutrality there is no level playing field. Such models, therefore, destroy the true value of the internet as a level-playing-field. While an OLX may be chosen by Facebook for inclusion in its Free Basics, the reseller from Ratnagiri may not. Without its ability to provide, protect and nourish the level-playing field, the internet would lose its value. Free Basics will ensure the death of the internet as we have known it.

NEED FOR GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNMENT
That this matter has resurfaced after a national outcry had made it a matter of grave concern for the Prime Minister. His ministers and concerned departments must learn about net neutrality; else they will have failed to protect public interest and they will have even failed to understand and protect national security. Multinationals like Zuckerberg are making inroads into governance in unprecedented ways through PPP and other Trojan Horses.

R.S. Sharma, now the TRAI Chairperson, was the Secretary of the IT when the controversy broke out. By digging up the issue again he raises serious questions about TRAI’s ability to recognise, understand and protect national security. From the UPA regime, he has a record of designing projects that many allege will harm national security. He was also said to have contracted to foreign corporations issues that are central to national security.

The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007 prohibits any agreement to produce, supply, distribute, store, acquire or control services, which cause or are likely to cause adverse effect on competition within India. It also prohibits any agreement to produce, supply, distribute, store, sell or price, or trade with a tie-in arrangement, exclusive supply agreement, exclusive distribution agreement, restrict to whom services are sold or from whom services are bought, resale price maintenance if such agreement is likely to cause adverse effect on competition in India. It also prohibits unfair or discriminatory price or condition in purchase of the internet and its services. It prohibits TSPs and ISPs from using their dominant position as TSPs and ISPs to enter into, or protect, other markets like e-commerce, e-banking or other internet based services. The Competition Commission of India, by choosing to be a silent spectator to such an important issue, has raised grave questions about its ability to take suo moto cognisance of matters of such vital national importance.

It can hardly be under-emphasised that leaving the issue to the ministry and babus will cost the country dearly. With national security at stake, it is now for the Prime Minister to protect India from the Trojan Horses and ensure the restructuring of all the ministries and organisations that have failed the country by exposing it to such unprecedented national security lapses. It is regrettable that there is no think tank with the government that has been capable of raising the issues and protecting the nation. This is an opportunity for the Prime Minister to set right the wrongs and emerge as the saviour. After all a leader is one who dares introspect, revise his views, and walk the talk.


Dr Anupam Saraph is a Professor, Future Designer, former governance and IT advisor to former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Global Agenda Councils of the World Economic Forum.

9354 - NDA govt rewriting subsidy rules - Live Mint



The government to start direct benefit transfer scheme for kerosene from 1 April

Gireesh Chandra Prasad

New Delhi: The oil ministry’s decision last week to credit financial assistance directly to the bank accounts of poor consumers for buying kerosene would save the exchequer at least Rs.2,000 crore a year, when fully implemented, and help take subsidy reforms on fossil fuels to their conclusion, taking advantage of the prevailing low prices.

The poor man’s fuel is the last petroleum product to be chosen for market-linked pricing because of its political sensitivity and because it is sold through states’ vast public distribution network, unlike petrol, diesel and LPG which are directly sold by fuel retailers IOC, HPCL and BPCL.

Market-linked pricing of kerosene and transfer of financial assistance to the bank accounts of the poor would start as a pilot project in 26 districts across eight states from 1 April.

In case of LPG which is already sold at market rates, the government decided last week to limit subsidy transfers to the bank accounts of only those customers with annual incomes below Rs.10 lakh.

Both decisions come at a time when the Indian basket of crude oil is at $34 a barrel, the lowest in a decade.

“The bearish trend in oil price might stay for some time, but would not remain so forever. The government seems to be making use of this window of opportunity to achieve subsidy reforms in the oil sector,” said D.K. Joshi, director and chief economist at research firm Crisil.

Lower oil price has also enabled the government to boost its revenue by increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs.10.2 and Rs.9.97 a litre, respectively, in seven instalments since November 2014. While this did not pinch consumers, they were denied of the full benefit of the decline in global oil prices.

Although the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had in 2013 announced that fuel marketing companies could raise diesel prices by 50 paise a month to bring the administered price close to the market-determined price, the companies often did not exercise that right in the absence of a green signal from the oil ministry, as global oil prices were still high.

The Narendra Modi administration was able to take advantage of the subsequent fall in global prices to decontrol diesel price fully in October 2014, which led to an immediate price cut of Rs.3.5 per litre. At present, retailers make no revenue loss on selling petrol or diesel.

The fall in global price is also reflected in the fact that the Central government’s share of oil subsidy, which had touched Rs.97,000 crore in 2012-13, is estimated to be Rs.30,000 crore in the current fiscal. Of this, Rs.22,000 crore is for LPG and the remaining Rs.8,000 crore for kerosene. At present, kerosene, which has a market price of Rs.28 per litre, comes at a discount of Rs.13.

The oil ministry has also promised financial incentives to states that volunteer for lower kerosene allocation. If it results in lowering the total allocation of subsidized kerosene to states from 86.85 lakh kilolitres this fiscal to 71.30 lakh kilolitres, which according to the National Sample Survey of 2011-12 is the estimated total consumption of kerosene a year, savings to the exchequer could be at least Rs.2,011 crore a year. It is believed that about 40% of the subsidized kerosene is diverted illegally for adulterating diesel.

According to the government, the actual requirement of kerosene would be even lower, considering the improvements in village electrification and in making LPG available to more poor households. Through the “Give-Back” scheme of the government, nearly 45 lakh new LPG connections have been given to the poor.

Limiting LPG subsidy to those with annual income below Rs.10 lakh is expected to reduce subsidy by about Rs.300 crore a year at current price, assuming that each consumer who will be denied the subsidy from 1 January would be using 5-8 cylinders a year. According to rating agency ICRA, the savings for the government could be Rs.500 crore, which could increase materially if the income threshold for LPG subsidy is lowered progressively. In Delhi, a 14.2kg LPG cylinder comes at a retail price of Rs.608, on which the Central government pays a subsidy of Rs.198. About 90% of the 16 crore LPG consumers get subsidy on their bank accounts.

In 2012, the UPA government first capped the total number of subsidized cylinders available to a household at six, but later raised it to nine and then to 12 by January 2014.

Gireesh Chandra Prasad

TOPICS: FUEL SUBSIDYKEROSENELPGNDASUBSIDY REFORMS

9353 - PRESS STATEMENT National Security linked to Citizens Privacy, PAID NEWS responsible for survival of illegal Biometric Aadhaar so far


 PRESS STATEMENT

National Security linked to Citizens Privacy, PAID NEWS responsible for survival of illegal Biometric Aadhaar so far 

MoUs of UIDAI superior to Courts, Law and Constitution
Left Parties voiced their concern but no united action so far    

Review of 2015: Year of Lawlessness & Assault on Civil Rights  

Countries where rule of law prevails, MoUs are subservient to law of the land.  The implementation of Biometric Aadhaar underlines that MoUs signed with  Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) are superior to Supreme Court’s orders, law and Constitution in India.

January –Fourth Anniversary of the letter of Justice M. Rama Jois, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha addressed a letter to the Prime Minister in regard to the constitutional impropriety of issuing Aadhaar Numbers by UIDAI even when the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 was pending before the Parliament dated 19th January, 2011. But surprisingly, to the said letter, he received a reply dated January 29, 2011 simply stating that the Prime Minister has received his letter without replying to the points raised in his letter.
In blatant contempt of Parliament’s right, Supreme Court’s judicial process,  citizens’ rights, national security concerns and existing laws, Indian Government’s Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) continued its collection of personal sensitive information like Fingerprints and Iris Scans of all residents of India along with other information for biometric Unique identity (UID)/Aadhaar Number under the influence of World Bank’s eTransform Initiative, US Department of Defense, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Accenture, Safran Group and Ernst & Young.

February – A section of media remained wedded to Paid News in myriad disguises continued to hide the fact that fundamentally unique identity (UID)/aadhaar is not a proof of identity, it is an identifier contained in the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of UID/aadhaar numbers. Aadhaar is simply the brand name of UID Number. These publications and news channels ignored what is admitted in central government’s Paper on Privacy Bill. This paper states, “Data privacy and the need to protect personal information is almost never a concern when data is stored in a decentralized manner. Data that is maintained in silos is largely useless outside that silo and consequently has a low likelihood of causing any damage. However, all this is likely to change with the implementation of the UID Project. One of the inevitable consequences of the UID Project will be that the UID Number will unify multiple databases. As more and more agencies of the government sign on to the UID Project, the UID Number will become the common thread that links all those databases together. Over time, private enterprise could also adopt the UID Number as an identifier for the purposes of the delivery of their services or even for enrolment as a customer.” This paper prophetically infers that “Once this happens, the separation of data that currently exists between multiple databases will vanish.” This poses a threat to the identity of citizens and the idea of residents of the state as private persons will be forever abandoned.

March- Third Anniversary of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI)-Communist Party’s submission of 3.57 crore signatures against Aadhaar/UID and other issues to the Prime Minister. SUCI (C) had submitted these signatures on 14th March, 2012 on the 129th death anniversary of Karl Marx.
In an answer to a question raised on “Legal Framework and Parliamentary Scrutiny Over Intelligence Agencies” by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs in the Lok Sabha which was answered on 10th March, 2015, the minister’s reply revealed the plot regarding the nature of work UIDAI and its Biometric Aadhaar is doing. The question was: Will the Minister of Home Affairs be pleased to state:-(a) Whether the absence of a legal framework to govern the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has prompted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other banks of the country to refuse NATGRID an access to the database of its customers. He asked whether the Government has any proposal to extend parliamentary scrutiny over intelligence agencies of the country such as NATGRID, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, the Minister of State for Home Affairs replied “There is no information on the reported refusal of the RBI and other banks to provide NATGRID an access to their database. As per Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) mandate, the information/ data relating to Financial Sector has to be obtained by NATGRID through Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). A nodal officer has already been appointed by FIU to have interaction with NATGRID.  The issue of accountability of Intelligence Agencies like IB and RAW, and oversight mechanism including by a Parliamentary Committee is the subject matter of a Writ Petition in the Hon’ble Supreme Court, in which the Government has taken a view that the existing oversight structure is adequate. The matter is sub-judice at present. The NATGRID and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have not been declared as Intelligence Agencies.” It is apparent that there is an implicit admission about the role UIDAI and NATGRID play without formal declaration.

One year of resignation Nandan Nilekani as UIDAI chairman. Nilekani had submitted his resignation letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, three days after formally joining Indian National Congress to contest Lok Sabha polls. Nilekani joined Congress, a day after the party named him as its candidate from Bangalore South. "Yes, I have resigned today," Nilekani told PTI on 13th March, 2014. Nilekani contested against five-time BJP MP Ananth Kumar. In violation of Model Code of Conduct that was in force during the elections, Nilekani advertised himself at the cost of public money.

One year of Dr Vijay Shanakar Madan assuming the charge of chairmanship of UIDAI. He had assumed charge on March 27th, 2014 after Nilekani’s resignation.

April- First Anniversary of Narendra Modi’s tweet saying, "On Aadhaar, neither the Team that I met nor PM could answer my Qs (questions) on security threat it can pose. There is no vision, only political gimmick" on 8th April, 2014 in the aftermath of orders of Supreme Court and Punjab & Haryana High Court, concerns raised by National Human Rights Commission.


In its central organ, Liberation, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation [CPIML] carried an article in its April 2011 issue titled ‘What's the 'Aadhaar' of the UID Scheme?’ concluded, “The UID(/aadhaar) scheme is a blatant attempt to convert a resident into a number, the Indian population into a global market and then citizens into subjects.”

In an editorial titled ‘Policy Watch: UID Aadhaar Under Cloud’, Liberation argued, “Instead of spending thousands of crores on doubtful technology and UID, the Government should spend on expanding and universalising the social security net, so that the poor do not have to keep proving their poverty credentials in order to access what is their right” in January 2012 taking note of the report of the parliamentary standing committee on finance on Aadhaar Bill. Its July 2013 issue recalled how CIA-backed US corporations are involved in the UID/Aadhaar project and its editorial reads, “We in India must demand that the Indian Government protest against the violation of the sovereignty of India and the privacy of its citizens by the USA, and put a moratorium on its own digital spying and data-gathering plans….”

The Second Anniversary of four page analysis of Proletarian Era, the central organ of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI)-Communist party denouncing the Unique Identity (UID)/Aadhaar scheme as ‘subversion of democracy’. It had taken note of the severe indictment of the UIDAI by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in its report placed before Parliament on December 13, 2011. According to the report, the UID/Aadhaar project has been conceptualized “with no clarity of purpose” and “directionless” in its implementation, leading to “a lot of confusion”. The Standing Committee also observed that while framing of relevant law is under way, the continuance of the project is “unethical and violation of Parliament’s prerogatives”. The collection of biometric and personal data and issuing of UID numbers do not have any statutory sanction until the Bill is passed by Parliament. The journal endorses Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report saying, “There is every merit in this observation.”  The April 2013 issue of Proletarian Era raised pertinent questions debunking the need for UID/Aadhaar.  The party holds that “In the absence of a Constitutional provision or legal framework, all the actions of the UIDAI are technically unconstitutional and illegal.” This was a follow up of their submission of 3.57 crore signatures against Aadhaar/UID to the Prime Minister.

It came to light as per a RTI reply of April 2015 that out of 83.5 crore aadhaar numbers issued so far, only 2.19 lakh i.e. 0.03 % comprised of them who did not have a pre-existing ID proof. It shows how Indians were taken for a ride. It must be recalled that Dr. Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister had distributed Unique Identification (UID)/ Aadhaar numbers among the villagers of Tembhali village in Nandurbar District of Maharashtra on 29th September 2010. It was claimed, “The Aadhaar number will ease these difficulties in identification, by providing a nationally valid and verifiable single source of identity proof. The UIDAI will ensure the uniqueness of the Aadhaar numbers through the use of biometric attributes (Finger Prints and Iris) which will be linked to the number”. This shows that the claim in the Supreme Court on 29th September that “poor and those who had no other form of identity” are targets for aadhaar was/is wrong.

National Human Rights Commission in its submission to the parliamentary committee stated that the legitimate rights of the beneficiary citizens can get excluded.

 

Second Anniversary of article titled My Call Detail Records and A Citizen’s Right to Privacy  by Arun Jaitley as Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha. It must be recalled that referring to the incident of surveillance of his mobile phones, in an article published in Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu & English (Source: http://www.bjp.org), he wrote, Firstly, every citizen in India has a right to privacy. His right to privacy is an inherent aspect of his personal liberty. Interference in the right to privacy is an interference in his personal liberty by a process which is not fair, just or reasonable. A person’s Call Detail Records can throw up details of several transactions. In the case of an average citizen it can reflect on his relationships. In the case of a professional or a business person it can reflect on his financial transactions. In the case of a journalist it can reveal the identity of his sources. In the case of a politician it can reveal the identity of the person with whom he has regular access. Every person has ‘a right to be left alone’.”
Jaitley added, “In a liberal society there is no place for those who peep into the private affairs of individuals. No one has a right to know who another communicates with him. The nature of communication, the identity of persons being communicated with and frequency of communications would be a serious breach of privacy….This incident throws up another legitimate fear. We are now entering the era of the Adhaar number. The Government has recently made the existence of the Adhaar number as a condition precedent for undertaking several activities; from registering marriages to execution of property documents. Will those who encroach upon the affairs of others be able to get access to bank accounts and other important details by breaking into the system? If this ever becomes possible the consequences would be far messier.”
Revealing how power clouds human intelligence, Jaitley and his ministerial colleagues do not comprehend messier consequences of breach of privacy anymore. He wrote the article on April 17, 2013. It is available on BJP’s website demonstrating the gulf between what is preached and what is practiced.

May –First Anniversary of Narendra Modi’s U turn on 12 digit biometric aadhaar number which admittedly poses threat to national security after 21st May, 2014 when BJP led coalition became the ruling party at the centre. Considerations other than truth have given birth to Modi government’s faith in biometric aadhaar. The issuance of aadhaar numbers to large number of residents of India does not make it a program in national interest.

E.A.S. Sarma, former Secretary to Government of India wrote to the Prime Minister saying, “It is bizarre that the government should first collect personal information from unsuspecting citizens as a trustee and then surreptitiously pass on the ownership of such information to a private agency, guided more by the profit motive than the public interest. It is equally bizarre that the government should demote its own role to that of a customer of the private company in seeking access to the information base. All this amounts to a gross breach of the trust reposed by the citizens in the government. The proposal becomes all the more dubious in view of the monopolistic status sought to be given to the private agency 'owning' the citizens' information in its hands. I feel that the proposal is an ominous one as it would involve an outright handing over of the citizens' private information to a few private agencies whose motives could never be gauged and who have no accountability to the legislature. It is a proposal that should be rejected forthwith without any hesitation.” He concluded saying, “I get the uncomfortable feeling that it forms part of a more dubious scheme being contemplated by your government."

June- Fourth Anniversary of the submission of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to Yahswant Sinha headed Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on ―The National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill, 2010 on 29th June, 2011. The major issues discussed during the sitting broadly related to nature, objective and beneficiaries of aadhaar number; possible discrimination and specific provisions that are required to be built in; safeguards needed for securing the stored information by the proposed National Identification Authority of India; implications of the provisions of the Bill on the individual‘s right to privacy, etc. On being asked to comment on the implications of the provisions of the Bill on the individual‘s right to privacy, NHRC inter alia informed the Committee in their post-evidence reply as follows:- “….the right of privacy presupposes that such information relating to an individual which he would not like to share with others will not be disclosed. It may be mentioned that the right of privacy is not an absolute right……

In the matter of National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill, 2010, “NHRC’s views on the NIAI Bill, 2010″ in the Human Rights Newsletter (Vol. 18 No.8, August 2011) reveals that UID/Aadhaar Number has dangerous ramifications.  NHRC argued for “need for protection of information” and “the possibility of tampering with stored biometric information” in paragraph 5 (page no. 7 of the NHRC newsletter) and “disclosure of information in the interest of national security” mentioned in paragraph 9 (page no.8 of the newsletter).

July- Sixth Anniversary of meeting between A Raja, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology and Nandan Nilekani. They had interacted on 22nd July, 2009.
Ref: http://photodivision.gov.in/IntroPhotodetails.asp?thisPage=342 

Raja’s ministry was the focal point for UIDAI and UID/Aadhaar. This ministry has regained the mandate to look after UIDAI in the current BJP led government.A Raja was the minister from 18th May, 2007-31st May, 2009. Raja is an accused in the 2 G spectrum scam who "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and "virtually gifted away important national asset(s).”
First Anniversary of the meeting between Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister and Arun Jaitley, the Defence, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister and Nandan Nilekani, an electorally defeated Congressman and former head of UIDAI. Following their meeting on 1st July, 2014, the new government announced that aadhaar enrolment should cover 100 crore Indian residents by the end of 2015. Prior to the election and post election, Nilekani campaigned and promoted aadhaar using every marketing trick in the book amidst bitter criticism from the civil society groups, opposition parties including BJP, multi party parliamentary standing committee on finance and the judiciary.

Planning Commission appears to have been used to pilot it only to give Biometric Aadhaar an innocent garb and to mouth unconvincing claims about benefits of biometric identification in delivery of social welfare schemes. Wittingly or unwittingly, the merger of these schemes with biometric identification have done to use the former as a fish bait at the behest of Big Data companies. Such moves must be seen in conjunction with creation of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) with National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). The reports of FICCI and ASSOCHAM underline it. These measures reveal that government is increasingly fearful of the people.

One year of presentation by Dr Vijay Shankar Madan, the Acting Chairman, UIDAI before Prime Minister on July 5, 2014.

August- New Indian Express wrote an editorial titled End of Privacy is Death Knell for Indian Democracy 5th August, 2015. Election Commission of India (ECI) issued an order dated 13th August, 2015 withdrawing from linking of biometric aadhaar with Voter Identity card exposes his misleading claims. ECI’s order demonstrates that Aadhaar is not all critical for a welfare state based on democratic elections. ECI’s compliance with Supreme Court’s verdict in letter and spirit is an affirmation of individual choice of the voters which gives meaning to democracy unlike illegitimate and legally questionable UIDAI. The order of ECI demonstrated that UIDAI’s contention and government’s efforts to link its services to aadhaar is flawed. 

Supreme Court’s interim order dated 11th August, 2015 in the matter of 12 digit biometric unique identity (UID)/aadhaar number was issued 11 days ahead of 109th Anniversary of the publication of the South African colonial government’s draft Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance which made Mahatma Gandhi to launch his first SATYAGRHA because it required all Asians including Indians in the Transvaal region of South Africa, eight years and above, to report to the Registrar of Asiatics and obtain, upon the submission of a complete set of fingerprints, a certificate which would then have to be produced upon demand. The move proposed stiff penalties, including deportation, for Indians who failed to comply with the terms of the Ordinance. The Ordinance was issued on 22nd August, 1906. Knowing the impact of the Ordinance and effective criminalisation of the entire community, Mahatma Gandhi then decided to challenge it. Calling the Ordinance a 'Black Act' he mobilised around 3,000 Indians in Johannesburg who took an oath not to submit to a degrading and discriminatory piece of legislation. Biometric aadhaar case demonstrates how 'Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it'.
Referring to Supreme Court’s interim order dated 11th August, 2015 in the matter of 12 digit biometric unique identity (UID)/aadhaar number as “travesty”, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), one of the most globally reputed academic journals published since 1949 has written a pithy and noteworthy editorial in its recent issue saying, "The biggest failing of the Court’s interim order however is its own unenforceability. The only recourse that a citizen has against a government agency violating the Supreme Court’s order is to approach the Supreme Court itself in Delhi with a contempt petition, and hope for relief. This is simply out of the question for all but a negligible proportion of the country’s population. The likely effect will be that the use of the Aadhaar number, uncontrolled by law and carried on with reckless disregard for privacy concerns, will be expanded slowly but surely in defiance of the Court’s order."
Its editorial titled “A Legal Vacuum” is available at http://www.epw.in/editorials/legal-vacuum.html

Coincidentally, this order of the Court came ahead of Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech of 2015 wherein he claimed, “we have introduced LPG subsidy with direct benefit scheme in which jan dhan yojna and aadhar scheme was used and black marketing, intermediators etc were chucked out of the system. And thus approx 15,000 cr money was saved through this scheme” appears to be pregnant with far reaching implications for judiciary, executive, legislature and citizens. Such claims of savings due to Biometric Aadhaar are bogus given the fact that total estimated cost of the entire Aadhaar project has not been disclosed so far.  The EPW editorial unequivocally states, “The Supreme Court has failed to protect citizens from government illegality on Aadhaar.” editorial of Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) that underlines colossal failure of Supreme Court in protecting citizens from biometric aadhaar surveillance. The editorial refers to Supreme Court’s order on Privacy as “travesty”, a farce, sham, charade, caricature, parody & mockery.
Citizens’ opposition to UID/aadhaar has a historical context. It is linked to more than a century old world famous 'Satyagraha' of Mahatma Gandhi in order to oppose the identification scheme of the government in South Africa. Biometric profiling is inherently dangerous because it tracks individuals based on their religious, behavioural and/or biological traits. History is replete with examples wherein such profiling has been used for genocide, holocaust and violence against all kinds of minorities. 

September- On September 15, 2015, Nandan Nilekani wrote an article arguing that biometric Aadhaar can bring political, social and economic democracy in the country. Having built a “positive coalition of people who have a stake” in the success of biometric profiling based Aadhaar, he has disclosed that 'there is a huge coalition of organisations, governments, banks, companies, others who have a stake now' in the future of the biometric Aadhaar database. The idea was/is to 'create a positive coalition that has the power to overpower or deal with anyone who opposes it,' including the Supreme Court, Parliament, concerned political parties and peoples' movements. It is clear that the motivated definition of 'political, social and economic democracy' that he is offering is constructed to suit the interest of his coalition partners, not citizens.
Second Anniversary of Supreme Court’s order dated 23rd September, 2013 in JUSTICE K.S.PUTTASWAMY(RETD)& ANR Petitioner(s)

VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS, WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO(s). 494 OF 2012 by the bench of Dr. Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice S.A. Bobde wherein it directed, “no person should suffer for not getting the Adhaar card inspite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory and when any person applies to get the Adhaar Card voluntarily”.

One year of presentation by Dr Vijay Shankar Madan, Acting Chairman, UIDAI titled “Digital ID for Benefit and Service Delivery to Billion Plus People” at the International Joint Conference on Biometrics held during 29th September – 2nd October 2014 at Clearwater, Florida, USA providing seven misleading features of biometric aadhaar. He made indefensible claims about “Uniqueness – Ensured through biometric attributes” The fact is that the fallibility of biometric attributes has been admitted in the contract agreements which UIDAI has signed with foreign companies. The claim of uniqueness of biometric data is a “postulate” which has been found inherently fallible. Besides the terms "biometric information" and "demographic information" have not been clearly defined.

Dr Madan falsely claimed in his presentation that biometric aadhaar is “Compliant with IT Act” and it is “Consent Based”. This is highly misleading. The legislative framework to govern aadhaar is National Identification Authority of India Bill which is yet to be passed. It is noteworthy that Section 46. (1) of the Bill proposed that “No court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under this Act, save on a complaint made by the Authority or any officer or person authorised by it.” The fact is that aadhaar is coercion based. Since the aadhar number is to be used and applied "for delivery of various benefits and services", a citizen who does not have one may be denied access to these, while a resident, who may not be a citizen, would have access if he had obtained an aadhaar number. The claim that issuance of an aadhaar number has not been made compulsory is deceptive because residents who do not obtain one may find themselves at a disadvantage vis-à-vis those who do. This coercion is being done by linking the government departments with Central ID Data Repository (CIDR) of UIDAI. It robs the democratic rights of citizens.

Dr Madan claimed that aadhaar is “low cost”. The fact is that admittedly cost comparison has not been done. The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance revealed that the cost of aadhaar identification scheme has not been compared with the cost of providing existing forms of identity. Madam claimed that aadhaar is “inclusive”. The written submission of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) revealed that it excludes people. It stated that “the possibility of discrimination cannot be ruled out” because every resident is entitled to obtain an Aadhar number, but UIDAI does not say that it would be issued to all citizens. Madan admitted that aadhaar will not “replace all other IDs.” If that is indeed the case where was the compelling need for aadhaar.

Dr Madan claimed that “Data remains federated and any transfer from one silo to another will require approvals as per law.” The fact is there is no law to stop transfer of data to other agencies as is evident from the contract agreements between foreign companies and UIDAI and the ongoing linking of electoral database with aadhaar. 

Dr Madan claimed that “a random 12-digit (aadhaar) number ...can act as a primary identifier throughout the life of an individual….This is done to an accuracy of above 99.9%. But the Report on Biometrics Design Standards for UID Applications, UIDAI Committee on Biometrics exposes the veracity of his claim. The report states, “there is also data to suggest that quality drops precipitously if attention is not given to operational processes….Empirical data has highlighted several non-technical factors that can impact accuracy.” It further admits, “Retaining efficacy while scaling the database size from 50 million to a billion has not been adequately analyzed. Second, fingerprint quality, the most important variable for determining de-duplication accuracy, has not been studied in depth in the Indian context.”


Other presenters at the Florida conference included Shukri Ali Al Braiki, Director, Population Register Department, Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA), UAE who gave a presentation on “The UAE Population Register and ID Card Program: Achievements and the Challenges Ahead”. There was a “Panel Session on Large Scale Identification Systems” chaired by: Nalini Ratha, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA who gave a presentation. The other panel members who gave presentation included Michael Garris, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Stéphane Gentric, Safran Morpho, William G. Mckinsey, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Charles Y. LI, International Business Machines (IBM). The conference was sponsored by companies like Lumidigm, part of HID Global, nilesen, Safran Morpho, 3dMD, Cognitec, Cross Resolve, Digital Signal Corporation, IB Integrated Biometrics, M&C and SRI International. It was supported by Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of South Florida and University of Surrey. Notably, most of the agencies participating in the conference are involved in the implementation of aadhaar identification scheme.   

October- Fifth Anniversary of Central Government’s Approach Paper for Legislation on Privacy dated October 13, 2010. This paper admits, “India does not currently have a general data protection statute” as per information received from Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions through Letter Reference No.071/1/2010/-IR dated October 18, 2010. Till date admittedly, there is no data protection statute. This Paper also dwelled on the threat to privacy from UID/Aadhaar.

In contempt of Supreme Court’s repeated orders from September 23, 2013 to 15th October, 2015, an advertisement of Government of India has appeared in newspapers with Prime Minister’s smiling face urging the Indians to give their children between 0-5 and 5-18 years the gift of unique identity – biometric profiling based Aadhaar number. The advertisement is available at
http://tinyurl.com/pv32fn6 at the website of The Times of India. Court’s latest order dated October 15th, 2015 has kept the use of the Aadhaar, “purely” on “voluntary” basis, restricted to MNREGA, old age pension scheme, provident fund and Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana, over and above PDS and LPG distribution schemes allowed earlier. Children do not figure in any of these schemes allowed by the Court on “purely voluntary” basis given the fact that the ration card is made in the name of the head of the family. Reacting to government’s deceptive advertisement, Major General (retd) (Dr) Sudhir Vombatkere, one of the petitioners in the aadhaar case said, “Children enrolling for Aadhaar cannot be said to be voluntary”.


Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL) submitted a petition Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Information Technology on the subject of "Vulnerability and threats from online biometric-electronic aadhaar database, USA’s Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) & disclosures". It has drawn its urgent attention towards the Report of PSC on Information Technology on Cyber Crime, Cyber Security and Right to Privacy, and Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) in the US Senate which is being opposed by 22 technology companies including Apple, Google and Twitter on privacy grounds.

Second Anniversary of the statement of Communist Party of India (CPI) trying to impose it as objected to biometric aadhaar being illegal and unconstitutional if it was made compulsory for every social benefit. Its statement dated September 28, 2013 reads: “The Secretariat of the Communist Party of India, welcomes the judgement of Supreme Court that Aadhar Unique Identity Card is not mandatory for Social Benefit Schemes. CPI and Left are fighting on this issue for quite some time. Union Government was vague without clarifying whether it is mandatory or voluntary. But in practice it was trying to impose it as compulsory for every social benefit. It was illegal and unconstitutional. This judgement of the Supreme Court is a big relief to the people in the country.”

The same is available here:http://www.communistparty.in/2013/09/supreme-court-on-aadhar-card.html?q=aadhaar


November- Harvard National Identification Conference had a discussion on “21st Century Identification Systems: Data, Politics, Protection!” wherein Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Director General, UIDAI participated and Nandan Nilekani gave a speech at Harvard Kennedy School followed by discussion on “Inclusion and Exclusion: Ethical and human rights implications of identification systems in the context of statelessness”. It is not clear whether Pandey and Nilekani learnt any lessons from Government of USA abandonment of its biometric Real ID program like biometric Aadhaar.

Sixth Anniversary of disclosures on aadhaar and UIDAI by Wikileaks merits attention because it revealed government’s real motives. Wikileaks leaked a confidential document of UIDAI titled ‘Creating a unique identity number for every resident in India’ on 13th November, 2009. It revealed, “One way to ensure that the unique identification (UID) number is used by all government and private agencies is by inserting it into the birth certificate of the infant. Since the birth certificate is the original identity document, it is likely that this number will then persist as the key identifier through the individual’s various life events, such as joining school, immunizations, voting etc.” This paved way for all round surveillance adversely impacting political rights of present and future generations and making right to civil liberties extinct.

Fifth Anniversary of Nilekani being given ID Limelight Award at the ID WORLD International Congress, 2010 in Milan, Italy on 16th November wherein Safran Morpho (Safran group) was a key sponsor of the ID Congress. Its subsidiary, Sagem Morpho Security Pvt Ltd has been awarded contract for the purchase of Biometric Authentication Devices on 2nd February, 2011 by the UIDAI. Similar award has already been given to a Pakistani official who is involved in a similar exercise through National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Pakistani Ministry of Interior. The involvement of similar or same companies in both India and Pakistan has not been ruled out as yet.

Earlier, on 30 July 2010, in a joint press release, it was announced that “the Mahindra Satyam and Morpho led consortium has been selected as one of the key partners to implement and deliver the Aadhaar program by UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India).” This means that at least two contracts have been awarded to the French conglomerate led consortium.  Is it a coincidence that Morpho (Safran group) sponsored the award to chairman, UIDAI and the former got a contract from the latter?

Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL) submitted a petition addressed to Dr Shashi Tharoor, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on External Affairs on the subject of "Disclosures by Mr Assange, Mr Snowden and deleterious implications of transnational communication and surveillance companies for India’s foreign policy."

December- Third Anniversary of the statement of Communist Party of India (Marxist)-CPI (M) objecting to UIDAI’s links with US companies having links with US intelligence agencies. In a statement titled, “Aadhar Compromised” dated December 5, 2013 reads:  “The report that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has tied up with a US company with CIA links is a matter of deep concern.  According to a report in the Economic Times, a US company, MongoDB, is providing the software to manage the data base for the registration of Aadhar.  One of the investors in this company is the CIA. Earlier too, the UIDAI had entered into contracts with the US based company, L-1 Identity Solutions, and another French company for the Aadhar project.  The collection of personal data and biometrics of all Indian citizens through the Aadhar programme has been made available to the United State’s agencies through the employment of these companies. It is now known through the Snowden files that the US authorities have been suborning all data through US telecom and internet companies.  The Indian government and the UIDAI has compromised the vital data collected of Indian citizens by such tie-ups. The UIDAI collection of data has no legal basis. It is also being used illegally to make the Aadhar number compulsory for delivery of social services and subsidies. The Polit Bureau demands the cancellation of the tie-up with foreign companies and a suspension of the Aadhar scheme till Parliament deliberates and decides on its future and, if required, a legislative enactment.” The same is available at http://www.cpim.org/content/aadhar-compromised 

Second Anniversary of the speech of Prof. Tarun Naskar, Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)-SUCI (Communist) MLA prior to unanimous passage of the Resolution on Aadhaar by West Bengal Assembly dated December 2, 2013. It reads: “Supporting the government resolution on making mandatory the aadhaar card for the subsidy of cooking gas, I want to put my views a bit. The Central Government has resorted price hike reducing the subsidy on cooking gas which results acute economic pressure on lower and middle class. There should be no any role of a public welfare state in the arrangement of up and down of the prices of petroleum products in the international market. I strongly protest this policy of the central government. It may be mention here that the claim about the loss of the oil companies is not true at all, because the amount of profit of all the private oil companies including Bharat Petroleum, HP and others is increasing every year. The protest of aadhaar card should be on more ethical ground as it has been protested keeping in mind the view of the resolution of the government. We do not know how the data base collected through the images of eyes and face including finger prints of all ten fingers of all the people will be utilized. It has come to our knowledge that these data are out sourced to different domestic and foreign companies. Beside it, no legislation has been enacted to make 12 digits adhar cards. The respective Parliamentary Standing Committee has in the mean time termed it as “unethical and violation of Parliament’s prerogatives”. Because, this kind of legislation has never passed in parliament. This is a project where there is still no feasibility study, there is no cost – benefit analysis. The abuse of power for ulterior motive, spying on political opponents, subversion of basic human rights and harassing activists of democratic rights are regular features in our country, the use of these data base is suspicious. Beside it, in the mean time when High Court of Punjab and Haryana right from Andhra Pradesh has given their verdicts against it and recently even the Supreme Court did not support the government’s policies, how the policy of the Central Government be supported.” This is the English    translation Prof. Tarun Naskar’s submission in Bengali in West Bengal Assembly.

Ninth Anniversary of the formation of an Empowered Group of Ministers (E-GoM) comprising of A Raja, the Union Minister, the minister-in-charge responsible for UID and others. Prime Minister had constituted the E-GoM on 4th December, 2006.

One of the earliest documents that refer UIDAI is a 14-page long document titled ‘Strategic Vision: Unique Identification of Residents’ prepared by Wipro Ltd and submitted to the Processes Committee of the Planning Commission (set up in July 2006) finally emerged. This document envisaged the close linkage that the UIDAI would have with the electoral database. The records related to creation of UIDAI, be it from the Union Cabinet, Prime Minister’s Council on UIDAI, E-GoM, GOM and Committee of Secretaries need to be put on record to enable the Supreme Court to examine their legality. The Court has not examined them as yet. Central Government has failed to submit all the records in the matter of creation of UIDAI.

After accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the third Express IT Awards on 7th December, 2015, Nandan Nilekani said, “I am delighted that the NDA government has embraced Aadhaar and given it so much momentum. When I left Aadhaar, we had 600 million cards, now there are 940 million. It will reach a billion mark in the next three to four months”.
Economic Times (ET) View reads, “The government needs to ensure that Aadhaar results in more efficient delivery of benefits to the intended users. If by linking all benefits, the government can demonstrate a perceptible reduction in leakages, corruption in the delivery system by reducing middlemen, and improvements by ensuring better accountability of all government benefits, that should be proof enough for the Supreme Court” on 31st December, 2015.
It is apparent that such awards are an exercise in quid pro quo. These newspapers keep publishing advertisements from UIDAI promoting Aadhaar. The news reports on Aadhaar and related awards seem to fall in the category of Paid News.  
Imphal Free Press wrote about Biometric Aadhaar saying, “This is one of the most successful and ambitious campaign in the present generation to befool both the illiterate as well as the literate ‘educate’ population of the country with an ad of ‘Unique’” on December 11, 2015. Notably, Assam and Meghalaya appear to be the most enlightened among the States which have less than 2 % enrollment.  It is apparent that there are still some publications and websites that do not succumb to temptations of Paid News and uphold truth in their work.

                                              These developments need to be looked at in the backdrop of RTI replies and disclosures by Wikileaks in this regard.

In the matter of RTI application seeking complete copy of contract of UIDAI with M/s L1 Identity Solutions for Biometric Technology signed on August 24, 2010 and copy of contract of UIDAI with M/s Accenture for Biometric Technology dated September 1, 2010, on October 14, 2014, Vijay Bhalla, Deputy Registrar, Central Information Commission (CIC) wrote a letter on behalf of Sharat Sabharwal, Information Commissioner, CIC to Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) & Deputy Director, UIDAI stating, “I am directed to convey that you should, within two weeks of the receipt of this order, provide to the Appellant the limited information i.e. financial quotation/price by the third party firms in the subject tender as disclosure of it would not inflict any harm to the competitive position of third party firms at this stage when the contract have already expired.”

Responding to this letter written on behalf of Sharat Sabharwal, Information Commissioner, CIC to UIDAI, Subrata Das, the CPIO & Deputy Director, UIDAI wrote to the RTI Appellant on October 22, 2014 in compliance with the CIC decision on the second Appeal hearing dated September 30, 2014.

UIDAI’s letter reads, “The requisite letter in compliance with the CIC decision is as under: 
(i)              financial quotation/price quoted by M/s Accenture Services Pvt Ltd is Rs 2.75/ (inclusive of taxes) as a unit price for Enrollment Allotted Transaction for De-duplication Services
(ii)            financial quotation/price quoted by M/s L1 Identity Solutions Operating Company Pvt Ltd is Rs 2.75/ (inclusive of taxes) as a unit price for Enrollment Allotted Transaction for De-duplication Services
This reply implies that for each of the Indian residents targeted for aadhaar enrolment, the taxpayer through the central government will have to incur the cost of Rs 2.75 to the companies in question. This is significant because this is not a one-time cost but each time de-duplication of aadhaar number is done, the cost will be incurred.

A communication titled ‘Biometrics Stir the Pot in the UAE’ dated 22nd November, 2003, sent by some unidentified US official from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Group Destinations Arab Israeli Collective, Secretary of State, US and Dubai, UAE and to undecipherable location named ‘RUCNFSC CFSC SA COLLECTIVE’ merits attention.  This communication was brought to light by Wikileaks. Its import can be appreciated only if its following text is read:

“The Public Affairs and Consular Section in Abu Dhabi hosted a Press Briefing on the fingerprinting of NIV applicants at the US Embassy. In addition, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) and Consular Chief briefed the Director of Consular Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on the new Fingerprinting Procedures at the Embassy. Newspapers published accurate, informational stories and the Director of Consular Affairs expressed his understanding. Although one UAE official has refused to be fingerprinted saying he was being treated like a "Criminal," the UAE's majority Third-Country Nationals (TCN) are taking it all in stride, already subject to fingerprinting and retinal scans by the UAE and Emirate-level Governments.”NIV stands for Non-Immigrant Visas (NIV).

This reporting of UAE’s response to fingerprinting and retinal scans sounds like the reaction of different ministries of Government of India and Indian media, most of whom like their UAE’s counterparts did “accurate, informational stories.” But unlike the one official in UAE, who refused to be fingerprinted, in India, one did not learn about any civil servant who refused to enroll for biometric identification in the pronounced manner.
 
The communication further revealed that a foreign team installed fingerprinting collection devices on 23rd October, 2003 at the interview windows in conjunction with the consular section's routine computer upgrade schedule. After the installation, the consular section began collecting fingerprints from the required NIV applicants on 2nd November, 2003.

It is noteworthy that US embassy officials are reporting even the work of plumbers of fingerprint machines and installation of biometric devices to Secretary of State and their intelligence allies in Arab States, Israel and to undecodable locations. Do Indian officials, senior political leaders and concerned citizens realize its import?

The Wikileaked communication informs that journalists and photographers from all UAE’s English and Arabic dailies were called for briefing them “about the new biometric collection procedures” so that public is informed about it. This communication informs: “journalists focused primarily on the appropriateness of fingerprinting and questioned whether or not the fingerprinting was focused on Arab and Muslim audiences. Vice Consul responded that this was not the case, and, as reassurance, showed journalists the stacks of old computers the Orkand team has just finished replacing with new Pentium IV systems. (Comment: we recommend other posts do the same if possible, as this seemed convincing to the journalists present.)”

It goes on report that following this briefing to media, on 6 November 2003, journalists published stories based on the information provided to them including “the implementation of fingerprinting solely based on routine maintenance schedules and mentioning Frankfurt, Brussels, San Salvador, and Guatemala City as the first Fingerprinting Posts.”

This shows how journalists are/ were taken for a ride because they were made to believe that it was just a routine case of replacing old equipments with new equipments. It appears that the same tactics has been replicated in India in the matter of Aadhaar, National Population Register (NPR) and other places where biometric identification is being made mandatory.

On 9th November, 2003, there was a meeting with the Director of Consular Affairs at the UAE‘s MFA, wherein the Director expressed “his understanding of the need to move towards biometrics to enhance the security of the United States. He briefly commented on the retinal scans in place at UAE ports of entry for certain categories of visitors to the UAE, in particular workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He expressed satisfaction that fingerprinting did not apply to A- 1 and A-2 visa categories.”

It is clear yet again that the biometric devices are getting installed not because of any domestic compulsion of the Asian or African countries but because countries like US want it installed. This also demonstrates that those wielding diplomatic and official immunity do not hesitate to barter away their citizens’ rights if their temporary individual rights and privileges remain intact.
  
This cable from US embassy in UAE records that “public reaction to the initiation of fingerprinting of NIV applicants has been mixed. The UAE population is more disturbed by the prospect of fingerprinting than the UAE's majority TCN population. Consular staff have not received complaints from TCN applicants, who have their fingerprints taken for residence visas and IDs by federal and emirate-level governments. Certain TCNs are also subject to retinal scans at UAE airports.” The TCN population refers to Third-Country Nationals. A TCN is an employee who is not a citizen of the home or host countries.

It reads “Reaction by UAE nationals, on the other hand, remains mixed. The vast majority of UAE national student and tourist visa applicants have complied quietly and calmy when requested for their fingerprints. The prospect for turmoil with government officials and prominent UAE nationals, however, remains to be seen. One UAE senior university administrator official, the subject of a Class A Visa referral, refused to come to the embassy and told pas staff that he "would not be treated like a criminal." This reaction only stresses the continuing need to inform applicants that biometric capture capability not only enhances national border security to the benefit of US citizens and permanent residents, but increases the safety and security of visitors to the United States as well.”The communication reveals that promoters of biometric devices were expecting some “turmoil” but as things unfolded they were happy to witness unquestioned obedience of government officials and prominent UAE nationals like in India.

A secret cable, which was created on 17th December, 2009 and Wikileaked on the 23rd April, 2011 revealed that like in UAE, the US’ State Department is deeply curious about UID, India's biometric data based identification program. It asked its embassy in India to provide information about the progress or status of the Indian biometric ID card's development and deployment and wished to know “India's strategic plan for utilizing biometric ID card technology in the military, law enforcement, and private sectors.”

It sought to know as to which government agencies will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the national ID card biometric collection strategy, how do authorities plan to utilise the biometric ID card at India's borders, ports, and airports, which foreign countries and/or corporations are assisting in the development of the ID card, which biometric systems (i.e. fingerprints, facial recognition, iris scan, etc.) will be incorporated into the card, what prompted development of the ID card, which company is providing the biometric collection devices, storage, and matching database equipment, which organizations/agencies within India will have access to information gathered by the biometric ID card collection devices, what systems, databases, or portals will the named biometric ID card collection devices in India communicate with, will the ID card be accepted for passport applications, what types of anti-fraud measures do Indian authorities plan to incorporate in the issuance process and what security features are planned for the ID card, will the card be International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) compliant and will it use any encryption and any efforts to "spoof" or defeat biometric enrollment, such as fingerprint alteration.

The cable asked these questions but it prefaced it with few observations. It reads: “Washington analysts read with keen interest recent press reports about a proposed biometric national ID project in India …the project has been billed at recent trade conferences as the largest biometric enrollment ever proposed and is the biggest biometric  initiative anticipated in 2010.  Despite promised improvements, the cards would provide, analysts are concerned the program could present a vulnerable target for regional extremist groups -- such as Lashkar e-Tayyiba -- who could obtain fraudulent Indian ID cards during the large-scale enrollment for use in travel or as breeder documents to apply for passports.”

This cable gives the impression that US agencies have been following the project from its incubation stage.

It underlined that with regard to answers to the questions posed that “results of these requirements will be incorporated into a strategic assessment for senior US policymakers on the regional implications in South Asia of the biometric ID program.”

Another cable dated 4th September, 2008 released by Wikileaks reveals that US Ambassador to India met with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on 2nd September, 2008 wherein the name of would be chief of UID/ Aadhaar, Nandan Nileakni figured for a Sub-group of US-India CEO Forum for educational collaboration which was to provide a report after the elections. Notably, this cable from New Delhi was sent to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Council, Secretary of Defense among others. Notably, Nileakni was one of the eight members of National Knowledge Commission (NKC) headed by Sam Pitroda who advocates identification and tagging of every object in India through his Public Information Infrastructure initiative.

US Embassy’s cable for the week of 29th June to 2nd July 2009 notes that the UID “project is expected to cost about Rs1,500 billion ($31.5 billion), and technological challenges in creating tamper-proof smart cards capable of handling Indian conditions are expected. According to press reports, the GoI may exclude private companies from participating due to the large amount of confidential information involved in the program. The public sector company Bharat Electronics Ltd has already issued over 120,000 smart cards under a GoI pilot project to establish a multipurpose national identity card, and is likely to be one of the key players.” It is noteworthy that eventually Indian government did not exclude private companies.

With regard to the National Smart Card Identification System, the wikileaked cables reveal that “Joint Secretary (Telecom) JS Deepak told Econoffs that the first meeting between Additional Secretary of Department of Telecom Subodh Kumar, Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and founder of Infosys, and Indian telecom service providers was held on 24th September to discuss the roll-out of the unique identification (UID) program. Earlier this year, the GoI set up the UIDAI to implement a Unique Identification card project, which will own the database of residents along with their biometric information….Joint Secretary Deepak noted that despite the inherent challenges posed by the massive scale of this program, the introduction of UID will transform the way Indians do business in the areas of Government-to-Citizen interaction. He said the ID would be useful for a multitude of purposes, including elections, taxation, national security, and banking. Deepak, a former USAID employee responsible for global social programs, was enthusiastic about the UID's potential to greatly reduce 'leakage' in government subsidies and benefit payments, including the NREGA program, and for its ability to also transform provision of education and healthcare.” Econoffs refers to US Embassy’s Economic Office. This communication was sent from New Delhi as part of its report for week of 21st to 24th September, 2009. It is noteworthy that Deepak’s credential as former employee of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been mentioned. Earlier, Bolivia and Russia have expelled USAID from their countries. In Pakistan in protest against drone strike there Pakistani Punjab government has refused to accept US aid.  US based agencies reportedly supervised Cuban twitter like program- ‘ZunZuneo’-using front companies based in Cayman Islands and other places for cooking unrest there. Interestingly, the $1.6 million spent on it was channeled in the name of an unspecified project in Pakistan since 2009.

While the background behind the operationalization of the biometric ID project reveals the opaque manner in which it took off, ramifications of launch of such projects demonstrates its true colours. In the book, Paper Citizens, its author Kamal Sadiq records, “In Ivory Coast, a national identity card scheme was central to a national politics that slid into civil war”. This issue became a major factor in the civil war given the fact that ruling party and opposition party held diametrically opposite views on documentary citizenship.

The insistence of documentary citizenship based on national identity card has also given birth to the business of fake identity cards, identity thefts and imposters. Dwelling on the situation in African countries like Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Zambia, in a 2001 paper “Disenfranchising the North through the National Identity Card scheme” Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa, general editor of Weekly PYRAMID – The Magazine said, “In most of the organized world identity cards have never been election requirements” and concluded, “The ID card is a much more benign form of genocide if it gets to pass.”

The distinguishing identity of citizens and non-citizens is getting blurred because of the idea of documentary citizenship based on biometric identification being deeply planted by US and EU based security agencies and companies. This leads to creation and naturalization of 24X7 continental and transboundary surveillance on human movement that opens the possibility wherein national ID card would be a ticket to the loss of much of personal freedom and intergenerational and intra generational rights.

Non-BJP and other non-Congress opposition parties do not realize that like Ivory Coast, a civil war can happen in India too because of biometric and electronic identification. All the international agencies, which are involved in promotion of unique identification (UID) through Planning Commission, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), residential addresses and land titles in India were involved there as well.
Non-Congress and non-BJP parties must resist subjecting of citizens to biometric surveillance through the ongoing merger of aadhaar, NPR Voter ID card and the Electronic Voting Machines. The servility of the Congress and BJP towards agencies like US National Security Agency (NSA) and their infantile reactions in the face of evidence that the entire union cabinet was under NSA’s surveillance must be remembered as one of the dark chapters of Indian history. In its abject meekness Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did not hide even an iota of information from the NSA but it is reluctant to share its correspondence with Nandan Nilekani under the Right to RTI Act.
The role of Ministry of Telecom in conceptualizing or launching UID/Aadhaar program under A Raja’s tenure as its minister in charge merits examination by the central government if national interest is to be protected given the fact that “Surveillance is based on a system of permanent registration. It is a decisive economic operator” as underlined by Michel Foucault, in his book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison.

Not surprisingly, scholars like Ashis Nandy, the author of The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under colonialism have referred to UID/Aadhaar number as prison number.

Jurists like Dr Usha Ramanathan say, “The challenge to the UID project is, of course, much more than privacy. Much, much more. Convergence, surveillance, national security, matters of personal liberty, the power the data controller wields over the data subject, the inversion of the relationship between the state and the citizen, exclusion, data as property, the failure to make a law, the deliberated flouting of court orders, the conversion of voluntary enrolment into mandatory enrolment on threat of being left out, untested biometrics, no informed consent about the uses to which the data will be subjected, the absence of an exit option to get out of the UIDAI data base, the lack of accountability if there is a failure in the system and someone suffers in consequence, the handing over of the NPR data to the UIDAI which will then ‘own’ it (according to the notification that set it up) ….” 

Dr Ramanathan wrote that the idea of seeding has been put to rest by the interim order of Supreme Court which categorically states: “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 (for PDS and for fuel).” Seeding in various data bases will, by this order, have to cease forthwith. So, the Election Commission’s exercise in seeding their data base with the UID number will have to stop. So, too, for instance, the sharing of the NPR data with the UIDAI. This is an important privacy protection that the court has ensured till the petitions challenging the UID project is finally heard and decided. The only exception that the court has made, unsolicited it would seem, is in the event of a court directing the use of the data ‘for purposes of criminal investigation’. The UIDAI has been proclaiming that their data is incapable of being used for criminal investigation; but it seems the court has not paid heed to this cry of protest. The government’s denial of the existence of the fundamental right to privacy is, of course, not innocent at all. This happened at the same time that the government was arguing in another court down the corridor that privacy was the reason it wants to retain the defamation clause in criminal law. It is also the time that it is considering the passage of a Human DNA Profiling Bill, aspiring to create a DNA Data Bank.”

Biometric Aadhaar and related programs are giving a birth to a modern biometric based Prison for residents of India at their own expense facilitated by the propaganda unleashed by transnational commercial czars who are conquering public space and media with Paid News and other allurements. Did media inform about the emergence of a police state in Germany in the 1930s?   

The complicity of a large section of media must be seen in the context of Statement of Concern issued by Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India, Prof Romila Thapar, Historian, K.G.Kannabiran, Senior Civil Liberties Lawyer, Kavita Srivastava, PUCL and Right to Food Campaign, Aruna Roy, MKKS, Rajasthan, Nikhil Dey, MKKS, Rajasthan, S.R.Sankaran, Retired Secretary, Government of India, Deep Joshi, Independent Consultant, Upendra Baxi, Jurist and ex-Vice Chancellor of Universities of Surat and Delhi, Uma Chakravarthi, Historian, Shohini Ghosh, Teacher and Film Maker, Amar Kanwar, Film Maker, Bezwada Wilson, Safai Karamchari Andolan, Trilochan Sastry, IIMB, and Association for Democratic Reforms, Prof. Jagdish Chhokar, ex- IIMA, and Association for Democratic Rights, Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD and Justice A.P.Shah, Retired Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi at Press Club of India, New Delhi on 28th September, 2010 which was largely boycotted by imbedded media. Taking note of rejection by Aadhaar like projects by Australia, China, UK, USA and other countries the statement sought halting of the Aadhaar project. 

That section of media whose owners promote Paid News ignored the Public Statement issued in October 2015 Prof. Anil Sadgopal, Scientist, All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE), Bhopal, Prof. Kalpana Kannabiran, Director, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, Prof (Dr) Mohan Rao, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health (CSMCH), Jawaharal Nehru University (JNU), Dr Meher Engineer, Scientist, former President, Indian Academy of Social Science, Kolkata, Ram Bahadur Rai, noted journalist, Dr Babu Rao Kalapala, Scientist, formerly with National Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, All India Progressive Women Association (AIPWA), Prof D M Diwakar, Professor of Economics, A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna, Arun Kumar, former Member, Press Council of India, Indian Journalists Union, General Secretary, Bihar Working Journalists Union & President, The Times of India Newspaper Employees Union, Patna, Sankar Ray, veteran journalist, N D Jayaprakash, Disarmament Researcher & veteran activist seeking justice for victims of Bhopal disaster, Qaneez Sukhrani, urban affairs analyst, Pune, Kshetrimayum Onil, Lead Coordinator, REACHOUT, Manipur Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, Anhad, Irfan Ahmed, General Secretary, All India Tanjin-e-Insaf, Bihar, Guman Singh, Himalaya Niti Abhiyan, Himachal Pradesh, Dr Umakant, Human rights advocate & independent scholar, PT George, Intercultural Resources, Delhi, Wilfred D’ Costa, Indian Social Action Forum, Delhi, Prakash K Ray, Editor, bargad.org, Gopal Krishna, Member, Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL), Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Dr Vikas Vajpayee, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health (CSMCH), JNU and Rohit Prajapati, social activist, Gujarat. The Public Statement against aadhaar and Human DNA Profiling Bill was released at Indian Women Press Corps, New Delhi.

A Dalit activist who was one of the eminent citizens who signed the statement said, "This project wants to fix our identities through time. Even after that we are dead. The information held about us will be fixed to us by the UID number. Changing an identity will become impossible. We are working for the eradication of the practice of manual scavenging, for rehabilitation of those who have been engaged in manual scavenging, and then leaving behind that tag of manual scavenger. How can we accept a system that does not allow us to shed that identity and move on? How can a number that links up databases be good for us?"
Meanwhile, a Supreme Court bench of 5 judges, Chief Justice of India H L Dattu, M.Y. Eqbal, C. Nagappan, Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy heard the case of 12 digit biometric aadhaar identification number project and passed the order on 15th October. After hearing the 12 digit biometric aadhaar number case, Supreme Court’s Bench ruled that “We impress upon the Union of India that it shall strictly follow all the earlier orders passed by this Court commencing from 23.09.2013."  In this regard Supreme Court’s order of 24th March, 2014 in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Vs Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Case is most categorical as it leaves no room for ambiguity. This order dated 8th December, 2014 has been relied upon by Central Information Commission (CIC) to give its decision in File No.CIC/SS/A/2014/000518. Its decision is available at http://rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/CIC_SA_A_2014_000518_M_143631.pdf

Supreme Court bench of 5 judges reiterated, "We will also make it clear that the Aadhaar card Scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other." The Court has issued repeated directions since 23rd September, 2013 till 16th October, 2015 to this effect.  On 11th August, 2015, the Court had directed that "Union of India shall give wide publicity in the electronic and print media including radio and television networks that it is not mandatory for a citizen to obtain an Aadhaar card; The production of an Aadhaar card will not be condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen”. This has not been complied with in letter and spirit.

In an interview, Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks informed Imran Khan about the grave act of omission and commission. Assange said, “…we discovered a cable in 2009 from the Islamabad Embassy. Prime minister Gilani and interior minister Malik went into the (US) embassy and offered to share National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) – and NADRA is the national data and registration agency database. The system is currently connected through passport data but the government of Pakistan is adding voice and facial recognition capability and has installed a pilot biometric system as the Chennai border crossing, where 30,000 to 35,000 people cross each day. This NADRA system is the voting record system for all voters in Pakistan. A front company was set up in the United Kingdom – International Identity Services, which was hired as the consultants for NADRA to squirrel out the NADRA data for all of Pakistan. What do you think about that? Is that a…? It seems to me that that is a theft of some national treasure of Pakistan, the entire Pakistani database registry of its people.” The interview is available here

In a related development, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Ministry of Interior, Pakistan is also undertaking a similar exercise. Is it a coincidence that both the countries are undertaking the exercise at the same time? Will it prevent drone attacks and the ignominy of mouthing verbal opposition to such assaults on its sovereignty? The core question is: what has improved in Pakistan due to NADRA’s citizens’ database except facilitating precision targets by drones? It must be noted that Biometric Aadhaar too is about creating unique resident identity like Pakistan’s version of biometric exercise for citizens’ identity card which was completed by NADRA, ministry of interior, Government of Pakistan and their database has been handed over to US Government.

Was NADRA made accountable for this theft of national treasure of Pakistan? Will census commissioner & registrar general of India be made accountable if “rich data assets” are stolen or sold? Has anyone been made accountable till date?

Claims of UIDAI and the central government is an exercise in articulation of empty words. Given the fact that some 91,000 of USA’s classified pages reached the website of Wikileaks in 2010 reveals how such claims of security and privacy are mere hollow claims with no privacy law in the country. Union Ministry of Planning, the nodal ministry for aadhaar informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that concerns sharing of data, surveillance and profiling is being addressed by a proposed legislation on privacy. The committee observed that the enactment of such data protection law is a "pre-requisite for any law that deals with large-scale collection of information from individuals and its linkages across separate databases." The law has not been enacted till date. Thus, the claim of UIDAI and the central government is bogus. The need for "protection of information" is recognized in theory but there is no provision for relief/compensation to the wronged person. The transfer of biometric and demographic data to foreign companies for seven years as per contract agreements with UIDAI exposes the untruthfulness of this claim. This has compromised national security in an unprecedented manner. 

Taking note of these court orders of Supreme Court, it is high time states and other agencies unsigned the MoUs they have signed with illegal and illegitimate Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). In 2016, States ruled by opposition parties should pave the way for protection of national security and civil rights instead of waiting for the Court to tell them how to act with political imagination to safeguard hard earned political rights.


For Details: Gopal Krishna, Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL), Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660, E-mail:1715krishna@gmail.com