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 15, 2016

10438 - No fingers? No monthly ration - Telegraph India


- Launched to curb graft, biometric device denies rice to leprosy patients
A.S.R.P. MUKESH

Murli Goswami (grey-haired, with white gamchha) along with other leprosy patients at Indiranagar in HEC area of Ranchi on Tuesday. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Sept. 13: The Aadhaar-enabled public distribution system (PDS) launched in Ranchi on pilot basis threw up a tragic loophole today when around 50 leprosy patients turned up at their ward councillor's office, saying they had not received ration for the past three months as they lacked thumbs and fingers to verify their biometric identity.

The 50-odd leprosy patients, including women, told ward 43 councillor Chanda Devi their very survival was at stake. Every month, a ration-cum-Aadhaar cardholder is supposed to get 1kg salt, 2 litres of kerosene, 2kg of sugar, 3kg of rice and 2kg of wheat, all at heavily subsidised rates.

Among the 450-odd leprosy patients who live in Indiranagar, many have fingers and thumbs. But, those who lost them due to the debilitating disease are now blocked from getting PDS items despite having all valid documents.

Under the biometric ration system, Aadhaar cardholders punch thumb or fingerprints on point of sale (PoS) devices at PDS outlets to get their identity verified against the database uploaded in it to get ration.

Though the state food and civil supplies department wanted to curb corruption and exclude fake beneficiaries with this system, the plight of the leprosy patients points out how the state forgot practical challenges faced by the differently abled.

Councillor Devi said they had written to state food and civil supplies minister Saryu Roy about a month ago on this. "The department told us they were working on an alternative, but as of now, we're waiting," she said.

Devi's husband Krishna Kant Ram, the representative of Hatia MLA Naveen Jaiswal, said the problem surfaced three months ago. "It's ironical that all Indiranagar residents have ration and Aadhaar cards but many can't get ration now," he said.

On how fingerless leprosy patients got Aadhaar cards in the first place, Murli Goswami (55), one of the many afflicted, said: "They took my eye (iris) impression." His friend Raghunath Mahto, in the same quandary, said: "They scanned my eye to give me the card but now they say they need my fingers to give me rice."
As PoS devices don't have iris scan, Mahto's acute observation remains only that.

S.B. Mehra, special rationing officer of Ranchi district, said the food and civil supplies department suggested issuing ration via a one-time password on mobile phones as an alternative in these special cases. "For this, we will have to feed mobile numbers against beneficiary names in PoS machines. But, no final orders have come in this regard," Mehra said.

Does everyone have a cellphone? Mehra believes most do, irrespective of economic class. Among leprosy patients, some do but many don't.

Jean Drèze, architect of MGNREGA and social activist, said practical realities have derailed the biometric-enabled PDS system in poor pockets and in rural belts of Ranchi.

"The new system requires many fragile technologies to work at the same time: the PoS machine, the Internet, biometrics, remote servers and mobile network. Data groundwork (including Aadhaar seeding) must have been done correctly. Jharkhand faces huge connectivity problems even in the capital. No wonder, then, that many people are finding themselves deprived of PDS items they are entitled to," he said.

Drèze also recounted an anecdote.
"On August 26, I went to a PDS shop in Ratu block in Ranchi to get a first-hand report of glitches. I saw some households with no UID, biometric systems showing fingerprint recognition snags, machines coming up with error messages that neither the dealer nor the cardholder could understand, let alone fix. Connectivity problems and remote server failures are part of this larger issue," he said.