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, March 7, 2016

9432 - The Gurgaon con gang: ‘Maids’ rob 40 homes of Rs 5-cr valuables - Hindustan Times


  • Leena Dhankhar, Hindustan Times, GurgaonUpdated: Mar 03, 2016 10:52 IST
Two women of the con gang were arrested after a 55-year-old businessman, one of their victims, saw them in Sushant Lok on February 16 and informed the police. (HT Photo)

Nine months after stealing jewellery and cash worth Rs 5 crore from more than 40 residents in Gurgaon, six members of a con gang found themselves in the police net on Wednesday only after victims took to social networking sites with CCTV footage and photos of the alleged accused.

The police acted after 21 victims shared CCTV footage and photos of the gang on social networking sites. The victims also formed a group on WhatsApp and discussed among themselves about ways to put an end to the frequent thefts. They said the police failed to recover the stolen ornaments. Some of the ornaments were more than 100 years old and were family heirlooms, one of the victims said.

The arrested six have been identified as Kajal and Poonam — both domestic helps — Ravi Kumar, Kajal’s husband, Shivam, and two jewellers —Vikas Kumar from Bhagalpur (Bihar) and Rakesh Kumar from Palam (Delhi).


The accused were involved in around 40 theft cases in Gurgaon, 20 in Faridabad and more than 100 in Delhi and Noida, the police said. Kajal alone was involved in 50 thefts, the police said.

Ravi Kumar’s smartphone was a major giveaway about the gang, which targeted upscale New Gurgaon residential areas such as DLF City phases 4 and 5, Sushant Lok, Sohna Road, Sector 56 and Sector 57. He stored snapshots of the gang members’ Aadhaar cards and other ID proofs, which helped the police nab six of them.

The police are on the lookout for masterminds Reena Devi, Meera Devi, Sundari, Seema and Nirmala Devi, who are from Bhagalpur.

The gang members, in teams of two, posed as domestic helps and robbed residents on the first day of their employment, the police said.

“The gang was operational in Gurgaon for nine months and targeted houses in several localities. They were not scared of being caught. The mobile phone that the police found had all details of the gang members. It also had photos of their Aadhaar cards, but the police did not bother to look at it,” 
Saloni Chawla, a senior executive at an MNC in Gurgaon and a resident of Sanskriti Apartments, Sector 43, claimed.

Though six of the gang members were nabbed on Wednesday, victims said they were disappointed with the “casual approach of the police”. They alleged that if the police were more active and conducted raids on time, more items would have been recovered and all members arrested.

“It is unfortunate that despite six arrests, the police could recover items worth Rs 50,000 only. The important members of the gang are still at large. The members have not spent even 5% of the stolen items as their expenses are not more than Rs 5,000 a month. They live frugally, so where did the ornaments and money go? The police also went to Bihar, but found nothing,” Dr Vani Relan Wasir, a victim and resident of DLF City phase 1, said.

The police are searching for two more jewellers — Santosh and Kailash — who allegedly bought stolen ornaments from the gang and sold it in different parts of the country. Another jeweller, Vishnu, is serving his sentence in Bhagalpur jail and the Gurgaon police will get his custody on production remand.
The gang divided the country in zones and the members sold the ornaments to jewellers who sold them in several states, inspector Yashwant Singh, in-charge of the crime unit, said.
When the police visited to a few jewellery shops in Gurgaon, they found them shut. Singh said the shopkeepers might have been tipped off.

“We gathered call records of some mobile numbers, which will lead us to the other accused. We are trying to find out about the other jewellers who bought the stolen ornaments,” assistant commissioner of police (DLF) Ramesh Pal said.