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

Monday, September 6, 2010

510 - Administering food security - Sify Finance

Business Standard  | 2010-09-06 00:50:00

The delay in the National Advisory Council (NAC) finalising its proposals for food security legislation seems to stem from the realisation that legislation is easy, execution is difficult. Once a right to food law is in place, the governments at the Centre and in the states will be expected to deliver, failing which there could be serious political backlash. 

Identifying the beneficiary is one problem, delivering food to the beneficiary is the second and bigger problem. It is now clear that the unique identity card developed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) would form the basis for choosing the beneficiaries of the right to food law. The main objective of doing so, evidently, is to distinguish between genuine and bogus beneficiaries of both the public distribution system (PDS) and the food security law. The number of fake ration cards in existence today is shockingly large. 

Going by official reckoning, while the total number of households falling in the below poverty line (BPL) category is reckoned at 65.2 million, as many as 110.8 million ration cards had been issued by the state governments till March 2009. This is despite leaving a sizeable proportion of deserving households out of the PDS network. These fake cards, coupled with corruption at the ration shop level, constitute the major source of leakage of highly subsidised foodgrain. Such swindling ought not to be allowed to go on.

Issuing of UID-linked smart cards and computerisation of PDS operations are generally viewed as effective means of eliminating bogus cards and preventing diversion of subsidised foodgrain. It was chiefly with this end in view that pilot projects were launched in Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh to try out the effectiveness of smart cards. Interestingly, while definitive conclusions from these pilot projects are still awaited, the Madhya Pradesh government has come out with the claim that it has, on its own, conducted such trials and has found the smart-card model unsuccessful. It has, therefore, improved upon this system by conceiving another model involving UID-linked biometric cards for identification of beneficiaries and separate food coupons for disbursement of grains. 
The problem with the use of smart cards as virtual ration cards is that it requires ration shop owners to use machines for deciphering biometric cards which they are generally reluctant to do. Besides, and perhaps more importantly, the lack of written and easily readable information on the smart card about the precise entitlement of the customer for different commodities leaves the scope for cheating by the shopkeepers. Thus, this system served only a limited purpose of keeping the fake beneficiaries at bay, without effectively plugging other malpractices. 

Under the Madhya Pradesh model, on the other hand, food coupons will have the entitlement clearly spelt out on them and biometric verification will be done only once a year at the time of distributing the coupons to the beneficiaries. Prima facie, this system seems simpler and consumer-friendly, as consumers would be aware of the ration due to them. A shopkeeper would only have to take the coupons and deliver the goods mentioned therein. There is merit in adopting this model nationwide, for a targeted PDS, extending it later to grain delivery for food security.

 
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