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

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

1413 - Nilekani pat for Aadhaar effort- Telegraph India

OUR BUREAU  Saturday , June 18 , 2011

Ranchi, June 17: Jharkhand is a frontrunner in enrolment of people and allotment of Aadhaar numbers, better than neighbours Bihar and Bengal where work on the unique identity project is barely progressing.

This certificate came from none other than UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, who was in Ranchi today to chair a review meeting of the project whose eastern region headquarters have been set up here.


“We reviewed our work in Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal during this meeting. We are very happy with the progress in the making of Aadhaar numbers in Jharkhand,” said one of the celebrated co-founders of IT bellweather Infosys Technologies.

Then came the clincher. “However, in Bihar and Bengal, the work of enrolling people for the unique numbers and issuing them these numbers is yet to pick up speed,” Nilekani added.

He confirmed that so far, around 20 lakh people of Jharkhand had been enrolled for UID cards. Of this, around 6.5 lakh had already received their Aadhaar numbers.

In the urban areas, work was likely to be completed by March 2012.

So far, in West Bengal 46,613 UID numbers have been issued, while in Bihar it was 17,043.

Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) eastern regional office in Ranchi monitors the work in all three states and hence officers involved in the project in Bihar and Bengal were also present at today’s meeting.

Several aspects of the project, including various systemic strengths and weaknesses encountered by enrolment agencies as well as government officials, were discussed threadbare.

At the national level, as many as 90 lakh people have already been issued Aadhaar numbers, while another 2 crore people have been enrolled. Nilekani, said the UIDAI’s aim was to issue 60 crore Aadhaar numbers by 2014 across the country.

“By October this year, we aim to enrol 10 lakh people across the country for Aadhaar in a day. In the coming days, the tempo of enrolling persons for Aadhaar will increase,” he added.

Nilekani, who arrived here from Delhi around 7.30am, was accompanied by UIDAI director-general R.S. Sharma — a Jharkhand cadre IAS officer who played a key role in introducing IT-enabled e-governance measures in rural belts of the state — and deputy director-general M. Dalwai.

Earlier, Nilekani met chief minister Arjun Munda for over an hour at his Kanke Road residence and discussed various uses of Aadhaar numbers including their linkage to several government schemes like MGNREGS, old-age pension, scholarships and public distribution system to make implementation entirely transparent.

Munda had also asked several senior officials of various state government departments, including rural development, urban development and food and civil supplies, to attended the meeting. “Beginning with MGNREGS, use of Aadhaar numbers will be gradually extended to other departments,” he said.

“Once this number gets used in schemes, the scope of malpractice and duplicity will be controlled. Besides, it will help the government in strengthening internal security,” Munda added.

Nilekani, who was on his second visit to the state, maintained that the UIDAI’s progress was satisfactory in Jharkhand and that every individual in the state would receive his or her Aadhar number by March 2013.

“The warm response being given to us everywhere is rather enthusing. Everyday, 200-300 people turn up at our camps for registration. In the next three to four months, we will be able to enrol over 10 lakh new persons,” he added.

So far, 46,613 UID numbers have been issued in Bengal, and only 17,043 in Bihar. According to sources in the UIDAI, state governments of both Bihar and Bengal were yet to get into the act of enrolling people for UID numbers.

The numbers achieved so far were courtesy State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India, two agencies working as national registrars for the project in Bihar and Bengal respectively.

While, the former Left Front government in Bengal did not show much interest, in Bihar, the Nitish Kumar government had already launched a similar initiative of issuing “e-Shakti” cards before the UID project was rolled out.

By the time UID was launched there, around 50,000 e-Shakti cards had already been issued by a private firm entrusted with the job. “But the problem has been sorted out now. The company entrusted with creating e-Shakti cards will be working in tandem with the firms selected by UIADI to issue Aadhar numbers in the entire state,” an official added.

A Bihar government source claimed that around 60,000 people had been enrolled for UID numbers so far.
CLICK ON TITLE TO SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE - Posted by