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, February 13, 2018

12942 - Aadhaar and adharma are beginning to merge - The Hindu

Aadhaar and adharma are beginning to merge

Suresh Menon

FEBRUARY 10, 2018 22:56 IST



A stand-up comic, friend of mine, had a terrific idea for a sketch recently. A baby is born in a hospital but is not allowed to leave till it can show its Aadhaar number. That was the nub of it, although he – like all good comics – stretched it to include stories of India’s hospitals being more overcrowded than its jails with grown men and women who haven’t seen the world outside the hospital because they don’t have Aadhaar cards.

And then we read about a hospital in Bhopal which ‘in no uncertain terms instructs hospital staff, ward in-charge and security guards, not to allow new-borns to leave the hospital premises unless the unique ID is produced’.

When reality is a step ahead of satire, a nation is in trouble. If stand-ups in Modi’s India face the problem, so do their counterparts in Trump’s America. How can you be funnier than the original when the US President announces that those who didn’t stand up and cheer his speech are guilty of treason? Our Prime Minister is probably kicking himself for not having thought of that one.

When George W. Bush finished his term, talk show hosts shed a tear. They asked, like Marc Anthony did of Caesar, “When comes such another?” One that provided them with endless material? Soon came Trump. Now the talk show gang cannot keep pace with him. Nothing they say is as funny as what he says.

In India, it is not the talk show hosts or even stand-ups who try to stay one step ahead of the natural comics ruling the country. It is the twitterati. A typical response to Vinay Katiyar’s call asking all Muslims of India to go to Pakistan is met with “Mr Katiyar, are you a travel agent?” One tweet combined the obsession with cows and national elections with the tweet: “What next? Allowing cows to vote?”

Rahul Gandhi’s election-eve temple-hopping has garnered its share of responses too. One said, “One more term for Modi, and Rahul will be seen building the mandir at Ayodhya, brick by brick with his own hands…”

Trump’s obsession with the Clintons is matched by Modi’s with the Gandhis. Both are obsessed with personal appearance, from hair to suit. Trump tapes his tie together, Modi has worn a suit bearing his name. Trump hasn’t thought of that one yet.
The Washington Post reported recently that Trump imitated Modi, accent and all, while discussing the situation in Afghanistan. There is no report about Modi imitating Trump – not the accent, anyway – so it would be interesting to see who would feel more insulted if compared to the other.

My friend, the stand-up, is busy making a list – women being made ineligible to vote, Trump and Modi exchanging jobs, all non-Aadhaar personnel being sent to Mars – so he can get a few laughs before it all becomes reality. Truth is stranger than humour.

Thanks to our leaders, satirists are out of a job – unless they reclassify those who sit and starve as being ‘gainfully employed’.

Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu
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