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

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

10457 - Aadhaar e-PoS leaving out beneficiaries, say activists; Rajasthan government disagrees - Indian Express

The Rajasthan government has said the state’s record has been exemplary in making the transition from the older ration card-based system to using Aadhaar.


Written by Mahim Pratap Singh | Jaipur | Updated: September 17, 2016 6:15 am

Villagers of Belatikri under Lalgargh PS queue at a ration shop for rice at Rs 2 per kg on Sunday. (Source: Express photo by Partha Paul.Jhargram)

Food security activists and economists have expressed concern at the exclusion of thousands of PDS beneficiaries in Rajasthan owing to glitches in the Aadhaar enabled electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device.

The Aadhaar enabled ePoS is dealing a double blow to the state’s public distribution system, leaving out beneficiaries owing to glitches in the ePoS machine, and not being able to check “quantity fraud”, activists maintain.

The Rajasthan government, however, has said the state’s record has been exemplary in making the transition from the older ration card-based system to the one based on biometric identification using Aadhaar.

Interestingly, Subodh Agarwal, Principal Secretary (Food and Civil Supplies) cited Rajasthan’s Aadhaar ePoS experiment as a “best practice” at a meeting in New Delhi on Friday. 

“Rajasthan’s experience has been exemplary due to the speed at which we have done Aadhaar seeding, National Food Security Act sanitisation as well as ePoS installations,” he told The Indian Express.

In a letter to Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, activists and economists, including Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera, Nikhil Dey and Anjali Bharadwaj, have sought to draw the government’s attention to the “danger of inappropriate technologies” for PDS in states like Rajasthan and Jharkhand.
According to data obtained from Rajasthan government’s official portal, only 64 per cent beneficiaries were getting their ration through the Aadhaar enabled ePoS system in August.

The remaining 36 per cent are vulnerable to exclusion owing to glitches in the machines, allege activists.

While the number of beneficiaries has seen an increase — from 44.6 per cent in May to 64 per cent in August — activists say the numbers still present a bleak picture.

“A 62 per cent ‘success’ rate (July) is disastrous. In rural areas at least, hardly anyone foregoes their rations. We don’t know what is happening to the remaining 38 per cent. There is no clarity about a ‘manual override’ facility, that is if the machine fails you, the dealer can revert to old-style register-based sales. In any case, dealers have no incentive to tell people about. Are the 38 per cent aware of the manual override facility, or are they being cheated?” said economist Reetika Khera.

“The new technology has possibly dealt a double blow – quantity theft continues as before; plus for 38 per cent, they may get it if they know about the possibility of register based sales, or not at all if they are unaware of this option,” she said.
However, the state government says the system cannot result in exclusion. “We are not saying that ePoS machines cover 100 per cent beneficiaries. But those who can’t get their ration from ePoS due to some technical glitches, can always get it from the manual system,” Subodh Agarwal, Principal Secretary (Food and Civil Supplies), told The Indian Express. “And the system is slowly picking up. If we have reached over 62 per cent from 44 per cent in May, then that is an achievement,” he said.

Aas Mohammad, a Fair Price Shop operator in Tijara, Alwar, said all sales at his shop were being made using ePoS machines. “If the machine fails to identify them, they have to come again. We have stopped selling through registers,” he said.