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

Saturday, August 27, 2016

10305 - Nandan Nilekani sees Aadhaar playing a role after GST rollout - Money Control

Aug 03, 2016, 03.14 PM | Source: CNBC-TV18 


Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, said he believes the government will listen to all stakeholders and devise a simple system for the GST rollout.


Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, said that the backend IT has been put in place well ahead of GST rollout. If GST is rolled out, it is believed that tax experts will have to cope with cumbersome procedures. Nilekani said that a lot of business rules can be implemented through technology. He believes that laws should be drafted in a way that simplifies the ease of doing business. He believes that the government will listen to stakeholders and devise a simple system. The role of Aadhaar will play a role, however small, he said, as small businesses will come under the GST net. Below is the verbatim transcript of Nandan Nilekani's interview to Surabhi Upadhyay on CNBC-TV18. Q: Goods and service tax (GST) is what we are all talking about and we could finally see movement after a decade long wait. Do you think this has the potential to perhaps revolutionise the indirect tax landscape of the country? A: Absolutely, the GST will make India single market for goods and services, reduce transaction cost and enable business to grow. A critical part of that will be the proper implementation of the GST Network (GSTN), a technology company that is building the platform and making everything paperless, so that is a very important part of achieving this goal. Q: You were at the forefront of the creation of that IT infrastructure for the tax framework, so what do you think even if we get the legislative changes out of the way, is the backend IT backbone in place to roll out this tax? A: I think creating the technology infrastructure for GST well ahead of time was thanks to the foresight of Pranab Mukherjee who was the finance minister at that time and he setup a committee under me to create this body and it is a unique body, which is owned by the central government and the state government and by some financial institutions and excellent leadership -- Chairman Navin Kumar, Prakash Kumar is the MD. So they have done a lot of work and we have implemented a lot of thing and I am very confident that they will be ready in time for the launch date whenever it is. Q: How was your experience in creating that GST IT network, was it difficult to build a bridge between central and state governments? A: I have to get everybody aligned, but I was very fortunate that I have worked with two finance ministers, Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram and I worked with two empowered committee chairs, Dr Asim Dasgupta of West Bengal and Sushil Modi of Bihar and both of them were very supportive. Because of the support both from the finance ministers as well as the empowered committee, we were able to come up with a very state-of-the-art design of GST, which was approved by the EC about 3-4 years back, so that is what is now getting implemented. Q: Specifically about the IT sector, tax experts have been pointing out that the industry might have to cope with slightly more cumbersome procedures. For example, some experts have been saying that let us say for instance if Infosys wins a contract from maybe a State Bank of India (SBI) then the company might have to make separate invoices for each state. So, is this how you are reading the picture as well, is it going to be a bit of deterrent for the IT sector? A: I don't know the details but obviously the law should be drafted in a way that it simplifies the ease of doing business and the law should be drafted keeping in mind that we will have a very advanced technology and a lot of the business rules can be implemented through technology. That is what needs to be done. Q: What about e-commerce because that is the next big concern. E-commerce companies will come under the tax ambit and there is a widespread belief that they will be adversely impacted, it will perhaps increase the compliance burden because it is going to be calculated on the transaction value according to the model law. Is this again a big concern? A: I have not paid attention to these kind of things. I do hope that the government will listen to all the stakeholders and design a simple, transparent, efficient tax system using technology. Q: What do you see will the role of Aadhaar be in the entire implementation process? A: Aadhaar to the extent that there are individual tax payers many small businesses will come into GST because service tax on many small businesses and often they are run by one man entrepreneurs who may use Aadhaar number. So, it is not directly there but it can play a role in simplifying the whole thing.