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

Sunday, March 6, 2016

9381 - Centre goes for deeper LPG sops cut - Financial Express


Seizing the opportunity presented by a narrowing of the difference between subsidised and market prices of LPG bottles, the government has turned more aggressive in its efforts to deny the subsidy to the relatively well-off.

By: Siddhartha P Saikia | New Delhi | February 19, 2016 1:09 AM

Seizing the opportunity presented by a narrowing of the difference between subsidised and market prices of LPG bottles, the government has turned more aggressive in its efforts to deny the subsidy to the relatively well-off. Households with an annual income of above Rs 10 lakh will not receive the subsidy in bank accounts from April 1, official sources told FE.

Text messages sent recently to LPG consumers by the three state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) read as follows: “If your/spouse income is above (R) 10 lacs, LPG subsidy is not admissible as per govt directive. If so, submit a declaration to your distributor or at www.mylpg.in.”

While this on the face of it would seem a reiteration of the December 2015 statement by the petroleum ministry where it said that the subsidy “will not be available for LPG consumers if the consumer or his/her spouse had taxable income of more than Rs 10,00,000/- during the previous financial year,” the OMCs’ text message is in fact sterner for two crucial changes: The OMCs are merely speaking of “income”, which is typically higher than “taxable income” (up to a quarter in case one is at the lower end of the highest 30% tax slab) mentioned in the ministry’s December circular and second, they are silent on “self-declaration” of income by the consumers.

Sources said whether or not the consumers defined as above declare their income, the government would get to know of his/her income from their Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts and stop giving LPG subsidies if the income is found to be above the threshold.

“You have submitted your Aadhaar number with us and the same is with the bank. IndianOil would track your account and if your total income is more than Rs 10 lakh a year, subsidy would automatically be stopped,” said a South Delhi-based distributor.
Currently, there are about 270 million households in the country and 163.5 million domestic LPG connections. Nearly 3% of the total households or 8.1 million have an annual income level of more than Rs 10 lakh, according to the all-India survey for FY15 by Delhi-based People Research on India’s Consumer Economy (PRICE). However, taxpayers with an annual taxable income of more than Rs 10 lakh as per the tax authorities’ data basis is just about 2 million.

The crash in global crude oil prices has brought down the subsidy amounts drastically. Currently, a subsidised domestic LPG refill costs Rs 419.22, while its price sans subsidy is Rs 575 in the national capital, much lower than around Rs 1,000 per refill in early 2014. Coupled with this, the government’s efforts to reduce the subsidy are also helped by the success of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme on LPG (PAHAL). As of January 1, 2015, when PAHAL went pan-India, the number of registered LPG consumers stood at 181.9 million. Thanks to the scheme that restricted LPG refills to 12 a year and led to transfer of the subsidy directly to the bank accounts of intended beneficiaries, the number fell to 148.5 million by April 1.
Of course, the connections have since swelled to 163.5 million, partly because commercial users of LNG, a fraction of which used to be disguised as household consumers, have come clean.
The “GiveItUp” campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2015 has led to 6.5 million consumers surrendering their LPG subsidies. This has resulted in provisions of LPG connections to more than 5 million rural households, according to the petroleum ministry.

In the first nine months of FY16, the government has forked out Rs 12,093 crore towards subsidising domestic cooking gas. The subsidy was Rs 36,580 crore in FY15 while it was Rs 46,458 crore in FY14.