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

Saturday, May 29, 2010

165 - 20 million to be made legal citizens - Prof R. Vaidyanathan IIMB

In India 20 million to be made legal citizens
Prof.R. Vaidyanathan IIMB wrote:
 On Fri, 5/28/10,


Arizona in the USA is in turmoil due to a piece of legislation passed in the state about illegal immigrants mainly from Mexico and other Latin countries. It says that the cops can ask for papers if they suspect a person to be illegal and also the employers need to check the legal status. The bleeding heart liberals and other assorted types of leftists are up in arms. But the mainstream America wants to go ahead and curb illegal immigration.

But India is different. It carries the 'Athithi Devo Bhava' to the extreme in terms of providing perfume to Kasab.

The facts first. Census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the census Act, 1948 and rules made thereunder. The National Population Register (NPR) is being created under the provision of citizenship Acts and rules. It has been claimed by the Government (home minister in Parliament) that the present census collects information for the later preparation of National Population Register (NPR). To be precise, there is only a Population register under Citizenship rules (2003) and it also mentions about a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC). The difference is obvious and unfortunately mixed up by the government. The census information by definition is confidential in terms of specifics and so there is no way the information collected can be used to verify nationality later.

The citizenship rules direct that 'during the verification process "particulars of such individuals whose citizenship is doubtful shall be entered with appropriate remarks in the population register." The current census enumerator is to fill the query number 11 about nationality by asking the person enumerated. It specifically mentions that "Please record the nationality of the respondent as declared by him/her for each of the person enumerated. Do not get into any argument with the respondent regarding this." [Para 5.21.1 of General Instructions]. This is the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) smuggled into the census structure to facilitate crores of illegal immigrants to be converted into a votebank through citizenship. When the citizenship rules ask for doubtful cases of citizenship to be identified and recorded, the census manual to collect information under the very citizenship rules says "do not doubt the respondent; just record what he says". Incidentally, anyone who has entered India six months prior to census (Kasab is eligible under this category!) and if anyone intends to stay for six months after becomes "usual resident" under the census rules, and they can declare them as Indian citizens. Not only that, the government is planning to issue "National Identity cards" to these people though the cards are meant only for Indian citizens.

In a nutshell, India is going to make more than 20 million (estimated by previous home ministers) illegal immigrants (mostly from Bangladesh) as Indian citizens within a few months. By this subterfuge India will be the only country in the world which not only welcomes illegal immigrants but also confers citizenship and national identity cards to them.
We have seen how the Election Commission has been made ineffective and subservient to the government of the day. We have seen how CBI has been misused to fulfill the whims and fancies of the government of the day.

We have seen how the political parties are eager to get votes under any circumstances and more eager to create vote banks.
We are now seeing the most important authority of our republic, namely, the census commission used for political purposes to confer citizenship on illegal immigrants in a most blatant show of misuse of power.

We have the case of Subba from Assam who became a member of parliament when he is not a citizen of India. We have porous borders and corrupt officials. These two constitute a deadly combination for disaster. But our government by a sleight of hand has decided to subvert the last remaining independent authority, namely, the Census Commission by combining the socalled National Population Register and census count, and by introducing this dangerous clause on citizenship in an innocuous way.

The end result will be millions of illegal immigrants will become citizens of this country and millions more will be interested and encouraged to enter India. Already a section of intelligentsia in Bangladesh believes that India is "Lebensraum" _ adequate room for life or development.

Already we find that large parts of West Bengal, Assam and Bihar and parts of UP are populated by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The correct procedure would be to identify them and deport them at best and at worst give them work permits or guest worker status, and not voting rights or citizenship rights.

But we are going to do something lower than the worst. Provide them citizenship rights. It is high time that nationalist oriented Indians protested this and forced the government to cancel the citizenship tamasha and conduct only a census for now.

Since this will confer voting rights on millions and a huge constituency for some political parties; they will welcome it. But they should realise that the Frankenstein monster we are creating will devour them sooner than later. Sooner than later there will be a clamour for reservation in parliament to "atithi or guest citizens".

A cabinet with Kasab, Headley and Sivarasan will be the most tragic part of the Indian republic.

But our media will still be debating whether sari clad Deepika Padukone was more charming than the Aishwarya dressed in gown in Cannes, and our political leaders will continue to look for avenues to make money by corruption and try to find tax havens to store them.
_______________________________________ Prof.R.Vaidyanathan,IIMB
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