In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Thursday, September 1, 2016

10345 - Is it possible to exist without an ID? - Live Mint

Last Modified: Fri, Aug 19 2016. 12 53 AM IST


The longer that debate on identity is buried, the more hurdles we place in the way of good governance that is emphasized by the current Indian government

Dipankar De Sarkar

The identity card in India is ubiquitous and omnipresent in its intrusion. Yet, no one seems to mind. Photo: Hindustan Times

Flying out to the hills the other day, I came across an odd sight at the airport. There were long queues snaking all across the three terminals. But there was one that was totally empty, guarded nevertheless by an armed security man. That gate had a signboard placed before it. In white lettering over a blue board, it said, “Honourable Members of Parliament and AEP Holders”.

The queues at the airport were swelling because you need to show both your ticket and a photo identity card to enter the building. AEP stands for airport entry pass or permit, which may mean an airport manager and other such important personages but also other staff and trainees. The rest of us looked wistfully at that empty gate and its workless security guard.

I can’t remember the last time I was asked for an identity card while going about minding my business in the UK or in mainland Europe. Equally, I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t asked to show one in India, again while going about my daily work.

The identity card in India is ubiquitous and omnipresent in its intrusion. Yet, no one seems to mind. Are you travelling abroad? Need some foreign exchange? You have to produce your passport and—this is a bit strange really—your air ticket.
Are you travelling within the country? You need your Indian identity card, such as the Aadhaar card, to get on to the plane. Checking into a hotel? You better have that ID card on you. Some of it is related to security, protecting vital infrastructure such as airports.

Yet, entering a railway station—even the main railway station in a city—is laughably (and scarily) easy. There is the usual unconcerned, slightly sleepy policeman sipping tea from a mug while trying his best not to pay much attention to the X-ray screen at the baggage belt. The bags pass him by, you pick yours up and he still hasn’t looked at you.

Your ID card is needed once you are inside the train when the ticket collector (TC) comes to check your ticket. Much of this is completely unnecessary. (For instance, you have to give your age and gender when booking a ticket and the TC will compare your ID card details with the information he has on you).
Several A4 size sheets of paper will be stuck outside every coach with the following information in columns: a serial number, name, sex, age, and seat number. To my mind, this is all a throwback to another era—a decades-old era—when ticketless travelling was common and the demand for train seats far outstripped supply.

Keeping the whole system of ticketing in the hands of the railway officials rather than, say, computers, kept the classes happy in that era. Contrast this with train travel in Europe or north America. You get your seat or berth number when you buy the ticket. About the only option you will get is whether you want to face the direction of travel and whether you want a “quiet compartment”, where you are not to speak on the mobile phone.

No one asks you for your ID card at any point of time—not while entering the station, not while boarding the train, not when the TC comes along. The closest you get to being asked to show a form of ID is perhaps when you book tickets for a show over the phone. That ID is your credit card. And that’s pretty much the limit of how interested the government is in tracking your whereabouts, your spending habits or where you are spending the night.

In India, the Aadhaar ID card has already covered around a billion people—a truly mind-boggling achievement for a developing country. Its purpose is ostensibly to eliminate the leakages in subsidies that are meant for the poor. But when it was launched by the previous government led by Manmohan Singh, Aadhaar was proffered as a means to check illegal immigrants. That remains a pipe dream. What it is, is a handy card to check your address for some utility and some security-related reasons. There is no such card in the UK. There is a national insurance card with a unique ID number but its use outside health and social security reasons is highly restricted. Identity in the UK is still largely determined—and this is really an important reflection of that society—by healthcare. It is your government-appointed local general practitioner (GP) who is literally your first point of contact as far as identity is concerned.

A pretty determined effort by the Labour government to introduce one was shot down amid a massive debate on civil liberties and privacy. It was the Tories, then in opposition, that shot it down, and I don’t think the nation of 60-odd million misses it.

However, there are two areas where ID checks could be introduced—elections and immigration. Following an expose of election fraud, a leading member of the ruling Tory party is calling for ID checks at polling booths. Eric Pickles, who is no stranger to the Indian subcontinent or indeed South Asian immigrants, says voters in the UK should be asked to show an identity card—not just the voter card that is slipped in through your door—at polling stations. His recommendation follows the discovery of massive electoral fraud at mayoral elections in Tower Hamlets, an east London neighbourhood with a large population of ethnic Bangladeshis, last year. A court removed the mayor, Bangladesh-born Lutfur Rahman, the UK’s first Muslim mayor, and barred him from contesting until 2021 for widespread voter fraud and intimidation. The lawyer for four ordinary voters who had brought the case to the Election Court alleged there had been “personations” by people voting in someone else’s name both at the booth and in postal ballots.

The other recommended check—this is more administrative in nature—is in counting in and counting out people coming to the UK. These exit checks—counting only long-term migrants and leaving everyone else out—are an obvious priority if you want to know exactly or even roughly how many foreigners enter the UK and then “disappear” into the shadow world of informal work and illegal migrants.

In India, a full and open debate on Aadhaar has never taken place. Indeed, the only debate is over the extent of its expanding use. Linking an Aadhaar number with providing subsidies to the poor may have had the effect of taking the wind out of the Left’s sails. 

But privacy is an issue that militates against the concept of a big (and prying) government, and by its very nature should interest both the Right and the Left. The longer that debate is buried, the more hurdles we place in the way of good governance that is emphasized by the current Indian government.

Dipankar’s Twitter handle is @Ddesarkar1