Eyeing IDs by Usha Ramanathan
Posted: Sat May 01 2010, 02:30 hr
Three recent initiatives of the government need to be investigated before any decision about adopting them is taken.
In November 2009, newspapers reported Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s statement that the government would soon be setting up a DNA data bank. In December 2009, he announced the setting up of the NATGRID. “Under NATGRID”, he is reported to have said, “21 sets of databases will be networked to achieve quick seamless and secure access to desired information for intelligence and enforcement agencies.” The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months. In July 2009, with Nandan Nilekani taking charge, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) started its work on creating a database that would give every resident a number which is intended to become a unique, ubiquitous and universal identity. While the stated purpose of the DNA bank and the NATGRID is to meet the threat posed by terrorism, the UID is given a gentler visage; it is to be promoted as a means of removing “one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies”, which according to this understanding, is the “inability to prove identity”.
Are these benign arrangements of data to enable efficient functioning? What is it that makes some of us unable to recognise innocence in these sweeping “identity” controls that are being remorselessly let loose in our midst? Why is it that some cabinet ministers have voiced concerns about the possibility of misuse of NATGRID, as reported on February 14?
The motivation for the DNA bank fundamentally alters the characterisation of citizens and residents. It is based on the perception that the state is at risk from its citizens and residents, and any person could emerge as a terrorist. It is the politics of suspicion, which dramatically erodes the ideas of citizenship, privacy, and minimum-invasion-and-only-when-there-is-reason-why. The state has to be preemptively readied to catch whichever of its 1.4 billion citizens may commit an act of terror. This is notching up the control that the state, and its agents and agencies, has over each individual. Also, that the DNA test is not foolproof is known but often not acknowledged. So, beyond the problem of every citizen and resident as suspect, there is the possibility of error. Recent experience in India with DNA debacles demonstrate the corruptibility of forensic methods — there’s many a twist between the scene of the crime and the laboratory. Yet, the presumptions about the infallibility of science and technology — contrasted, often, with human imperfection — will shift the onus to a person accused on the basis of who the DNA bank suggests is suspect. There is danger of DNA and data theft; there is the fact and circumstance of corruption, inefficiency and failing systems which could make the data unreliable; there is, importantly, the irrelevance of this bank to those who enter the country uninvited and unnoticed, which leaves the bane of cross-border terror unaddressed.
The NATGRID converges data from a range of data-holders and places them in the hands of “intelligence” outfits. This is expected to enable them to detect patterns, trace sources for monies and support, track travellers, and identify those who should be watched, investigated, disabled and neutralised. David Headley is its target. And, to get him, all the discrete “silos” of information will be shared with the intelligence agencies. The problem is that the intelligence agencies are not open to question, and are outside even the Right to Information Act. So, while they will be fed information about us, we are not entitled to know who is saying what about us to them, how they are interpreting it, and, most significantly, what use they will make of this information. Place this kind of information in anybody’s hands, and its abuse by those who have access to it is inevitable. Concerns about privacy are cast aside and invasion of privacy made a public virtue. The NATGRID is an unqualified statement that the state has a right to know every detail about each of our lives, but we are expressly excluded from knowing what the state and its agencies believe about us, and what they do with what they know. It places extraordinary power in the hands of those who already have access to a vast share of state power that is unaccountable.
There has been much myth creation around the UID: that enrolment will not be mandated but will be voluntary; that it is pro-poor; that only basic information will be gathered. Scratch the surface of these assertions. The creation of the National Population Register, with its element of compulsion, is one aspect of this exercise in creating the UID data base. And there is one fact about the UID that is incontrovertible: that it provides an easy route for the market and the security agencies to identify and profile any person. That is how the UID fits into the larger scheme of monitoring and control and that, as the current discourse reveals, will be its central purpose.
There are those who ask: why should we mind if we have done nothing wrong? But this is not about doing right or wrong. Among many other concerns, it is about letting some persons and agencies know, accurately or mistakenly, all manner of things about oneself. It is about being tracked and tailed. It is about acknowledging that those who may get access to the system may not always be fair, responsible and accountable. It is about recognising that too much power over individuals is a dangerous thing.
The relationship between the state and the people has to be carefully calibrated if absolute power is not to slip in and settle down, and these changes are too significant to happen without an informed debate.
The writer is an independent law researcher
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
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
