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, January 24, 2018

12767 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 24th January 2018



Economic Times
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today sought to know from those who have challenged the constitutional validity of Aadhaar how the unique ... by Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed that personal data of citizens were with the private entities and asked the petitioners how insertion of Aadhaar number ...






Moneycontrol.com
Unique Identity Authority of India, the body which issues Aadhaar, had a strange reply in store for a woman who complained that her Aadhaar was linked to nine mobile numbers without her knowledge. The woman who goes by the name of P R D and tweets from Twitter handle @PRIYARD said on ...






The Hindu
Goa Congress president Shantaram Naik wrote to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday demanding that the Centre issue Aadhaar cards to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). In his letter, Mr. Naik said the government should amend the Aadhaar Act to make arrangements in embassies and ...




The Hindu
Did Madurai City police demand Aadhaar cards of the arrested Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadre for their release? This is what the CPI (M) cadre complained on Tuesday evening. Around 175 cadre, including 16 women, were arrested when they staged a road roko at Periyar bus stand protesting ...






The Hindu
The newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), O.P. Rawat, on Tuesday said the electoral body would resume the exercise of linking voter identity cards to Aadhaar database when the Supreme Court gives its nod. “About 38 crore Voter IDs are already linked to Aadhaar. The process will be ...






The Indian Express
INVESTIGATORS ARE probing a “fake” Aadhaar card with a Delhi address found in Vadhu Budruk village near Pune, where a dispute between Dalits and Marathas on December 29 is believed to have been one of the triggers that sparked violence in the Koregaon Bhima region on January 1. The card ...






Times of India
LUCKNOW: On February 6, when UP board examinations begin, invigilators on duty will be seen with Aadhaar cards. In a first, UP Secondary Education Board has asked all invigilators to bring their Aadhaar cards along with their identity cards. The move is aimed to check fake, proxy invigilators during ...



The Hindu
The newly appointed Chief Election Commissioner, O.P. Rawat, on Tuesday said the electoral body would resume the exercise of linking voter identity cards to the Aadhaar database when the Supreme Court gave the go ahead. “About 38 crore voter IDs have already been linked to Aadhaar,” Mr. Rawat ...






YourStory.com
The move takes special significance as the social media giant, in a small test earlier, asked new Indian users to use the same name as on their Aadhaar card, which is linked to one's biometric data. Confirm noted that when it was launched three years ago, the idea was to become the market's trusted ...



Hindustan Times
Challenging the Chhattisgarh high court's order that has made the Aadhaar card mandatory for bail while examining papers submitted by an accused, a special leave petition (SLP) has been filed in the Supreme Court in which a hearing is scheduled on January 25. The high court passed the order in the ...






The Indian Express
The Banaras Hindu University administration has made Aadhaar card registration mandatory for filling online forms for admission in its undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The form filling process has started from January 22 and the last date for submit the forms is February 21 on its official ...






The New Indian Express
Attorney General KK Venugopal gave the information to a Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AK Sikri, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan, which is hearing a batch of petitions that challenged the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act as ...






The Arunachal Times
It was during first ever Aadhaar campaign in the State, I enrolled and got register myself and my family members. Being a Govt. Servant, I had to register my Aadhaar address where I was serving. Because those Aadhaar Officials asked me to provide present address where I temporarily stayed.






Free Press Kashmir
Jammu: The Government on Wednesday informed the Legislative Assembly that 100501 casual labourers and others have been regularized through the online biometric identification Aadhaar. The Minister in-charge of Finance, on behalf of the government was reply to the charges made by National ...






Daily News & Analysis
Cheteshwar Pujara finally achieved a half-century in South Africa on Wednesday. But it wasn't one he'd be proud of. The India number three batsman played his first fifty balls without scoring a single run. Yes, you read that right. Fifty balls without one run. He got his first run from the 54th ball he faced.






The Hindu
Meanwhile in Madurai district, cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) who carried out a protest near Periyar bus stand complained that the city police had demanded that they furnish their Aadhaar cards for releasing them. A. Ramesh, party district council member, said around 175 cadres, ...






Economic Times
Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan hopes finance minister will stick to fiscal fitness when he writes this year's Budget, the last full one before the Lok Sabha elections of 2019. "I hope India sticks to macro stability and does not blow up the fiscal deficit to an extent that the ...