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

Sunday, January 21, 2018

12699 - Nineteen Eighty-Four and India’s Severe Case of ‘Aadhaaritis’ - The Wire



K.C. Verma20/01/2018

A fantastical view of the stupidities, fallacies, misconceptions, whims and fancies regarding Aadhaar.


The only Kafkaesque stipulation I have yet to encounter is the need to have an Aadhaar number in order to apply for an Aadhaar number. Credit: Pixabay

The system sees me as a ‘cantankerous old guy’, or cog in short. Maybe a cog is what I am. How else can I explain that even as I disagree with anything and everything that the establishment mandates, everyone totally disregards what I have to say?
One of the reasons for my contrariness is my irritating habit of harking back to the basics. If there is a text, I must refer to it. If there is any legislation, I must go to the bare Act. And if there is nothing at all, I must go to guru Google. No wonder my friends find me a source of constant amusement and, at the same time, ridicule.
These days my friends find my outbursts against my weird encounters particularly amusing. They darkly suggest that there is nothing wrong with the world, and that it is I who am weird.
Somehow, I am not convinced. Take for instance my strange encounter with my banker. He insisted that I must link my account with my Aadhaar and wanted to see the card. I informed him that while the number is in fact written on a card, it is not a card like an identity card or a ration card. The fine point of the number being written on a card and yet not being a card escaped his banking instincts altogether.
“Sorry sir, but you must link your account with your Aadhaar card. We have our orders. They must be followed.”
“Didn’t some people in central Europe say the same thing about following orders in the early part of the last century?” I countered. “Look at the Aadhaar Act please. It speaks of targeted delivery of freebies so that no freeloaders can usurp what should be enjoyed by some other undeserving layabouts. This is my money and my account. I am not getting any subsidy or benefit and, frankly, very little service. So why should the Aadhaar number be linked?”
But the blighter wouldn’t budge. “No sir! I can’t allow your account to be operational if you don’t link your Aadhaar card with it.”
I soon had another weird encounter; with the ‘Avoidaphone’ fellow. He also wanted to see my Aadhaar card. I refused. He patiently explained to me, as if humouring some child, “You see, this is to prevent the misuse of the phone.”
Difficult as ever, I demanded, “Define misuse, mister!”
“Well, the phone could be used by a terrorist.”
“Let me understand this; if the Aadhaar number is linked to a SIM, the phone shall stop functioning if it is used by a terrorist?” I posed innocently.
“No, Sir! Don’t be ridiculous,” said the executive, his patience obviously running out. “It means that if a terrorist uses the phone, we shall get to know his identity. Then he can be nabbed.”
“I doubt it,” said I, the eternally doubting Thomas.
“What do you mean?” exclaimed the ‘Avoidaphone’ man.
So I waxed eloquent with all the wisdom I had acquired from guru Google.
“You see,” said I, “If the gentleman is a suicide bomber, there would be no difficulty in nabbing his dead body. But even an intellectually challenged terrorist would use a stolen phone or a pay phone. Or he would buy a cloned SIM from the paanwaallah at the nearest chauraha. If he is a sophisticated attacker, rest assured he shall use a SIM obtained in Timbuktu. Further, my understanding is that Aadhaar data cannot be shared with the law enforcement agencies; so where is the question of nabbing a terrorist from the biometrics?”
“No Sir, but rules are rules.”
“Look my good man,” said I, quite exasperated, “Executive instructions, no matter how elegantly drafted, should not defy common sense. Even if they do, they cannot be in contravention of the legislative intent and spirit.”
“Yes sir, but rules are rules!” “Well, it’s a bloody expensive mousetrap to catch a terrorist! The financial burden of this exercise far outweighs any damage that could be caused even by 72 terrorist strikes!” “Sir, it shall also prevent anyone else from taking a connection in your name.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake! What’s the big deal? Let anyone take a connection in the same name as mine. Can’t there be two people with the same name? I am sorry but maybe there is a logic gap somewhere!”
The last statement was made out of sheer habit. When you are cantankerous, you are cantankerous. Take it or leave it.
Then I had to buy a train ticket. Another weird encounter. The railway clerk insisted that everyone should quote the Aadhaar number and also show the ‘original card’. I entered into a futile argument because he would not listen.
“Why are you shouting?” he said. “You are the beneficiary of a subsidy; you avail the senior citizen discount, don’t you?”
“Ah yes, I do. But the Aadhaar is needed for targeted subsidies. The senior citizen discount is not targeted to a specific individual. You would give that discount to anyone above the prescribed age.”
But the railway clerk was not willing to be educated.
“Rules are rules,” he ruled. And the ignoramuses behind me in the queue booed. They booed me; not the railway clerk!
At the hospital too, I could not see any doctor. “I don’t have an Aadhaar number!” I declared.
“Well you must get one. It is compulsory,” said the petty tyrant responsible for issuing OPD slips.
I attempted to educate him that there was no compulsion about it. It is an entitlement! The Act entitles every resident to obtain an Aadhaar number through the prescribed process. I had just started explaining the differences between ‘entitlement’ and ‘obligation’ when the rude people behind me in the queue started shouting. At first I thought they were shouting at the OPD clerk, but it soon became clear that they wanted to lynch me for holding up proceedings.
The next encounter was worse. The income tax chap was not only adamant but downright threatening. He ordered me to show my Aadhaar card. I asserted that Aadhaar is a number and not a card and that the Permanent Account Number (indeed written on a card) had been given to me by the income tax guys and it had been working fine for the past several years. All my financial dealings are already known to Big Brother through the PAN. Why start complicating matters now?
“But sir, we now have instructions that your PAN should be linked with your Aadhaar card.”
“You mean to say that the PAN, which I was told was a permanent number, has now become a Perfectly Antiquated Nullity?” I posed.
“Sir, the Aadhaar will help us keep track of your taxes…”
“Do you mean to say that till now you could not!” I blurted out. “Like a fool I have been paying taxes and now you tell me that my PAN wasn’t good enough to keep track of them? I could have as easily not paid at all?”
“Sir, I repeat. We have our instructions and they must be followed.”
“Don’t you think you are rogering the happiness of far too many people at far too great a cost for benefits which to me seem totally illusory?”
I had another weird encounter when I recently called on a neighbour who had had a close call. After a couple of weeks in the CCU, HDU, ICU, ITU and other expensive abbreviations, he was back home. I thought he would be overjoyed to see my cheerful face; as indeed he was. Except that he screamed the moment he saw me.
He explained that he had had an exceptionally vivid dream while in the CCU, in which Lord Yama had appeared with a face exactly like mine. He said that the god of death had come to take his soul, but because he did not have his Aadhaar number, Yama refused to take him.
I have had Orwellian nightmares while getting my driving license renewed and while trying to obtain a passport. While applying for both, I had to produce my Aadhaar and give proof of residence. Ironically, neither the driving license, nor the Aadhaar, and now not even the passport, is considered valid proof of my address!
At one government office, the pompous protector of the hallowed gates not only wanted a self-attested photocopy of the ‘Aadhaar card’ but also contended that only people with ‘local’ cards would be given entry!
I am now getting into the habit of reminding people that the Aadhaar number or the authentication thereof shall not, by itself, confer any right of, or be proof of, citizenship or domicile in respect of an Aadhaar number holder. What a humungous waste!
Further, compelled by my cantankerous nature, I try to educate sundry imbeciles that the Aadhaar Bill was passed as a Money Bill, and should be related only to issues affecting the Consolidated Fund of India. But does anyone listen to a cog in the system? No, they merely repeat that rules are rules!
That is why you have to link your Aadhaar number with your Demat account, your provident fund, your salary, your purchase of a house, your purchase of a car, your life insurance policy, your savings in the post office and for admission of your child in primary school. Next you won’t be able to have a haircut or buy jalebis without quoting your number. And you won’t be allowed to drive on the road without the number. And then you won’t be allowed to breathe without the number!
One of my friends – part of the same brigade that makes fun of my conscientious nature – insisted that the Aadhaar is an elegant instrument, almost futuristic in concept and architecture.
I could not resist shooting back, “Then why do you entrust the administration and application of this scheme to medieval babudom? Haven’t you heard the old saying that to a man with a hammer, the whole world appears to be a nail?”
This cog in the system is of the view that the Aadhaar, and Aadhaar card, is often demanded by such demanders who have no possible connection with good governance or efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services, from the Consolidated Fund of India or otherwise.
The demanders also have no means of verifying the information being provided. Thus, in Aadhaar, every tuppenny bureaucrat has discovered a new instrument of harassment. Each of these petty tyrants finds ever expanding applications of Aadhaar. They have the hammer, and they have to use it.
I have come across any number of stupidities, fallacies, misconceptions, notions, whims and fancies regarding Aadhaar. Possibly the only Kafkaesque stipulation I have yet to encounter is the need to have an Aadhaar number in order to apply for an Aadhaar number.
K.C. Verma is a former head of India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.