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

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

11459 - Why Centre will have to devise a comprehensive Aadhaar Bill and not a money bill to address challenges - Financial Express


With 1,140,800,331 numbers generated as of April 2017, the “Aadhaar card” is the most ubiquitous identity document in India today.

By: Sumita Kale | Published: May 23, 2017 6:48 AM

This government will need to devise a more comprehensive Aadhaar Bill and not a money bill to address these challenges. (Source: IE)

Economics as a subject has always been blessed with diversity of opinions. In 2013, for the first time (and perhaps the only time in history) Robert Shiller and Eugene Fama were both awarded Nobel Prize in Economics for sharing diametrically opposite views on market efficiency.

With 1,140,800,331 numbers generated as of April 2017, the “Aadhaar card” is the most ubiquitous identity document in India today. Yet, the journey of Aadhaar has been riddled with controversy and debate since conception. On one hand, Aadhaar holds a lot of appeal to all authorities that see it as an efficient enabler of authentication and on the other, there are strident voices against it, pushing for stringent data security and privacy protocols. 

In the middle stands our Supreme Court, which is still to give a final hearing on the PILs filed by Aadhaar opponents from 2012. While the Supreme Court’s interim order in 2015 has restrained the government from mandating Aadhaar for any benefits delivery, it referred the issues pertaining to the right to privacy to a Constitution Bench, which is yet to be constituted. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard pleas against the government’s latest move to compulsory link Aadhaar to PAN and income-tax returns, but, the judgement on this is still reserved. Finally, the pleas against mandating Aadhaar for 17 subsidies/benefits are also to be heard this month.

Yet, this is India, and despite the restrictions placed by the Court, insistence on an “Aadhaar card” is fast becoming a de facto rule in many banks, government departments, schools, etc. At the same time, under the Direct Benefits Transfer programme, for which the Aadhaar Act was passed, Aadhaar seeding is yet to become universal—in its two biggest schemes MGNREGS and LPG subsidy (PAHAL) has crossed 80%; less than half the payments are being made through the Aadhaar Payments Bridge. 

There are clearly many ground level challenges in implementing universal Aadhaar seeding and payments authentication—basic connectivity issues, an inadequate readiness of bank agents and branches for digitisation/mapping, inadequate communication to the beneficiaries, etc.

Meanwhile, concerns on issues such as personal rights, state responsibility, and accountability are growing stronger. At this juncture, it is crucial to have a more open discussion on the wider use of Aadhaar, beyond it being an enabler of government transfers. While Aadhaar has the potential to ensure efficient public service delivery and to lower cost of transactions, a single identifier across databases can at once be a boon or a bane. 

The entire experience of giving a digital identity for all Indians has thrown up new challenges for us. We need more debate, inside and outside the Parliament, to work out the contours of the road that Digital India should take. The dialogue that avoids extreme positions and is open to all stakeholders can show us the way forward.

The need for such a dialogue is because questions that have been emerging are centred around Aadhaar, but have wider ramifications. For instance, a recent study by The Centre for Internet and Security showed that some government websites, in a bid for greater transparency, had put up information on Aadhaar numbers, bank accounts, etc, not realising that such dissemination was illegal and increased the risk of identity and financial fraud.

Then there are rising concerns about data security. Specifically, for Aadhaar, clear unambiguous responsibilities need to be fixed on those who handle the data, with heavy deterrents and penalties for breach and unauthorised usage. The Aadhaar Act, 2016, fixes the primary custodianship of the identity information with the UIDAI, but is silent on the liability in case of a data breach—in fact, UIDAI is not mandated to report breaches. For misuse by agencies handling the data, the Aadhaar Act sets out a paltry `10,000 fine (`1 lakh for a company), which is considerably lower than the penalty under the Information Technology Act, 2000, which sets a transacting party compensation of up to `5 crore for mishandling ‘sensitive personal data’.

Last but not the least, is the issue of “exclusion” of beneficiaries when authentication can fail due to multiple reasons—connectivity, fingerprints not matching, fraud by agents, etc. 

Rather than play down such concerns, it is advisable that the government set up strict audit protocols and redressal standards across all states that ensure that beneficiaries’ grievances are heard and addressed expeditiously. Grievance redressal is not limited to Aadhaar-enabled services, yet unless we aim to build up an atmosphere of accountability and transparency at the district/village level, and Aadhaar is a good place to start, vested interests will continue to get away with leakages and excluded voices will remain unheard.

Though most concerns regarding the project had been articulated before its introduction and were fairly well-known, the previous government did not lay out the requisite legislative cover for UIDAI. While the present government continued with the Aadhaar project, it did not take up the gauntlet of full legislation and instead passed the Aadhaar Bill in March 2016, as a money bill for government expenses. The critical problem with Aadhaar is that what was initiated as an authentication tool, has now become an identity proof across the board.

This government will need to devise a more comprehensive Aadhaar Bill and not a money bill to address these challenges. A comprehensive and open discussion on the critical need for modern governance for a comprehensive ID mechanism is essential. With all its warts fixed, Aadhaar is best suited to take on that role. All that it needs is a transparent legal framework to operate under, and this is best achieved through a bill, rather than Supreme Court judgements and case law.