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, June 20, 2018

13675 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 19th June 2018



Financial Express
Aadhaar Card Update Services: Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric id program which was launched by UPA-government in 2009 under the ...






Times of India
NEW DELHI: The government on Monday made a strong case for further strengthening aadhaar, saying that the biometric identity programme had ...






The Paypers (press release) (blog)
UIDAI has announced that facial recognition authentication for Aadhaar users that was scheduled to be launched on July 1 has been delayed for ...






Livemint
Mumbai: The Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI's) plan to make non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) use Aadhaar Virtual IDs to ...





NewsClick
The revelation comes in the wake of latest Supreme Court order which had prohibited the Centre from making Aadhaar mandatory for availing the ...






Business Standard
For, the data collected under Aadhaar will come under the purview of the privacy law. A majority of the members are said to be backing the position ...






Hindustan Times
A Chinese national who checked into a hotel in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal by allegedly showing an Aadhaar card, a Nepali citizen who also allegedly ...




The New Leam (press release)
Aadhaar has been understood as being 'voluntary' in nature. However, the government has left no stone unturned in mandating its use if one wants to ...





Times of India
The 28-year-old Frenchman who follows Aadhaar closely and operates a Twitter handle under the name 'Elliot Alderson', with over 50,000 followers, ...






Moneylife
In its reply, HDFC Bank told Bharat Varma (@BharatVarma3) that as per its internal guidelines Aadhaar is required at the time of opening an account.






BloombergQuint
The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, rollout of the virtual ID-based Aadhaar authentication and the real-time bank transactions through ...






Dailyaddaa (press release)
New Delhi: On Sunday night, a Chinese National was arrested, who allegedly checked into a hotel in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal by showing an ...




The Hindu
On Aadhaar, the Minister said that while only 61 crore Aadhaar numbers had been generated up to 2014. The numbers had jumped to more than 121 ...






Times Now
Providing Aadhaar number is mandatory for ITR filing. According to section 139AA of Income-tax Act, taxpayers are required to mention their Aadhaar ...






Financial Express
Aadhaar is a unique identification document issued by the Government of India. This document consists of your Name, Date of Birth, Address and a ...






Economic Times
A simplified application procedure using updated Aadhaar cards may also be used. For this, it is important that candidates have their mobile numbers ...






United News of India
Siliguri, Jun 18 (UNI) A Chinese national possessing an Aadhar card has been arrested along with a Nepal citizen and an Indian businessman during ...






ETtech.com
... rules until mobile wallet providers are allowed to access the Aadhaar database for user authentication, said three people aware of the matter.






The News Minute
Nearly two months after the Andhra Pradesh government made Aadhaar data and other details of at least 1.34 lakh citizens of the state public, ...






ThePrint
India's landmark data law might not apply to Aadhaar: Data collected under Aadhaar would likely be out of the scope and purview of the new data ...






Equity Bulls
... National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), where consumers of Tata Power, Mumbai can now e-sign the mandate online using Aadhaar-based ...






Times of India
New Delhi: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today came out in strong defence of Aadhaar, saying the world's largest biometric identification ...






The Hindu
The police recovered four entrance cards in the name of different persons, two Aadhaar cards and two identity cards from the accused Umesh ...