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

Thursday, August 12, 2010

418 - Sonia backs Aadhaar for reforming PDS - by Liz Mathew & Surabhi Agarwal - Live Mint Article

Sonia backs Aadhaar for reforming PDS
Liz Mathew & Surabhi Agarwal

The idea of using the unique identity (UID) programme, or Aadhaar, to reform the public distribution system (PDS) through which the government supplies cheap grain, pulses and other essentials to people who most need them appears to be gathering steam, with Congress president and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi signalling her backing for it.

A senior Congress party official, who did not want to be identified, said that Gandhi had directed the government to initiate discussions with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in this context. Officials from the agriculture ministry, including minister of state K.V. Thomas, met UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani in his office on Wednesday.

The government’s efforts to involve Aadhaar in PDS come after the Supreme Court suggested the same thing late last month.

Aadhaar aims to provide every resident with a unique identification number that can serve as proof of identity for everything from opening a bank account to receiving government subsidy to getting grains and other products from ration shops, the last link in PDS.

An official in the agriculture ministry confirmed that a meeting on Nilekani’s proposal to use Aadhaar in PDS did indeed take place on Wednesday. A UIDAI official declined comment. Meanwhile, the government has created a committee to prepare a road map for the computerization of PDS and link it both to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and UIDAI.

Integration with UID will be a major focus area of the committee, said an official in the department of information technology.

FCI’s warehouses are the first link of PDS.

On 27 July, the apex court bench comprising justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, while dealing with a report submitted by the justice D.P. Wadhwa committee on PDS, said: “The Union of India may consider computerization in consultation with the specialized agencies like the Unique Identification Authority of India or any other agencies.”

The Wadhwa panel, set up on 12 July 2006 to examine the functioning of PDS and suggest remedial measures, had found that there was “huge corruption and pilferage in PDS all over the country”.

The government was given two weeks to respond to the recommendations of the apex court, which also includes exclusion of people living above the poverty line from the purview of PDS and the shift to a per capita regime of providing subsidized foodgrain as opposed to the existing practice of allocations per family.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on Thursday.

Mint reported the court’s order on 29 July.

The report also pointed out that the court’s order had come ahead of a 30 August meeting of the National Advisory Council (NAC) to review the role of UID in PDS. NAC, the political interface between the government and the Congress party, is in a debate with the administration on the proposed food security Act. NAC wants the Act to be universal, while the government prefers a more calibrated approach that targets the poorest first.

In a discussion paper on linking PDS with Aadhaar, UIDAI has said: “The number would be a foundation over which the government can build more effective PDS processes.”

The paper added: “Aadhaar presents governments with a highly flexible solution—states can choose to implement Aadhaar within the PDS in stages, beginning with Aadhaar-based identification, and progressing towards Aadhaar-based authentication and an Aadhaar-enabled management information system.”

The paper further argues that linking PDS with Aadhaar will ensure the delivery of the entitlement to the right beneficiary and tracking of foodgrain movement.

UIDAI had previously approached the department of food and public distribution for a tie-up with the PDS scheme, specifically in Haryana and the Union territory of Chandigarh, though this is yet to materialize. Haryana and Chandigarh are already working towards a biometric-based PDS system.

liz.m@livemint.com

The Hunger Project is a joint effort of Mint and the Hindustan Times to track, investigate and report every aspect of the struggle to rid India of hunger. If you have any suggestions, write to us at thehungerproject@livemint.com