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, September 1, 2011

1569 - Animal Farm II - EXCLUSIVE TO TEHELKA

Animal Farm II

In Which George Bush Says What He Really Means (A PLAY BY ARUNDHATI ROY)

ARUNDHATI ROY

CAVEAT: In this age of copyright, intellectual property, piracy and plagarism I want to acknowledge that this play is entirely derivative. The ideas have all come from the public speeches and actions of the famous poet, pacifist, flowerchild, free-thinker and social activist George W Bush. Much of the play is based on the text of his recent speech in the Asia Society in New York. (All money from ticket sales should be sent directly to him.)
Ext. Day.
Purana Qila.
The Delhi Zoo.

It’s spring. The neem trees have lost their leaves. The silk cotton and the kachnaar are in full bloom. The car park is packed with Mercs with their engines running and their air-conditioners on. Bored uniformed chauffeurs are listening to Hindi film songs on swanky car stereos.

Inside the zoo the animals’ cages have been recently cleaned and smell of phenyl. Tiny American and Indian flags flutter from the bars. There are heavily armed US security guards with muscles and sunglasses on top of every cage. They search the crowd and the cages for the first sign of trouble. They seem particularly uneasy about the pangolin.

George Bush is standing in a bullet-proof cage and addressing a gathering of rich industrialists, MPs and a few film stars. They all wear lots of rings and have faded red thread wrapped around their wrists.

GEORGE BUSH: Hello all you lucky people! Thankyou for taking time off your busy schedules to come and listen to the President of the United States.

(The Hoollock Gibbon hoots. The Orangutan doesn’t even look up from his flea-hunt. The clouded leopard paces up and down. The Slow Loris looks surprised.)

I’m here today to talk about two great democracies in Asia, both of whom I have decided to invite into my Harem. Innia… and Afghanistan – sorry – Pakistan. Damn! I knew it had a Stan in it somewhere – but of course Afghanistan’s already in my harem, so how can I invite her in. Heh! Heh! Innia’s a democracy because the people voted for a government that obeys me. Pakistan’s a democracy because General Musharraf has my vote. So do the bigots in Central Asia and Saudi Arabia. Palestine’s not a democracy because they voted for people I don’t like. But Innia’s my favourite democracy.

More than five centuries ago the famous mass murderer and founder of our nation — Christopher Columbus set out to discover Innia and proved the world was round. Now my friend Tom Friedman says its flat. Frankly, I don’t really care what shape it is, as long as it belongs to me and I can play with it all day long. But as you know, Chris Columbus discovered the US instead of Innia. Fortunately there were lots of Innians there too. With God on our side we killed them all – 40 to 60 million of them – I don’t recall the actual figure, my office will send out a statement later. But let’s not quibble, what’s a little genocide between friends? The good thing is that we now have the country to ourselves. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. We have more Newcooler Weapons than any of you could possibly imagine. I could destroy the whole world in a minute if I’m in a bad mood. Heh! Heh! Jus’ kiddin’. I’m not really a moody guy. Besides…I’m on your side for now. I mean, I’m on your side now. I’m not your enemy am I? Do I look like that kind of guy? Have you seen Sleeping with the Enemy? I have, and I said to Laura, the film’s okay, but the question is, who gets f*****d? Ha!

Looks around with that sneery triumphant look we have all come to know and love.

I’m sorry Laura’s not here. She’s doing a photo-op with some orphans down at Mother Treezer’s. I have truly enjoyed meeting your Prime Minister – the guy with the turban and the funny high voice. I’m trying to get him to hand over the couple of Newcooler bombs you peoples’ have in your little cupboard, so that I can look after them for you. Your Prime Minister is a good man – he went to Oxford didn’t he? But still… he does wear that funny turban, and when I look around me I see all kinds of funnily dressed people, some of them even have beards and look like Muzzlims. People who live in hot countries smell funny and don’t use deodrant. My favourite deodrant is called Freedom, it has a lovely lemony smell. I don’t think funnily dressed people should have Newcooler weapons. So those bombs in your cupboard – I must inist, I mean insist - on them being handed over.

In the US we don’t keep bombs in our cupboards. Only skeletons. Our favourite skellies have pet names. They’re called Peace, Democracy and the Free Market. Their real names are Cruise Missile, Daisy Cutter and Bunker Buster. We like Cluster Bomb too. We call her Claire. She’s real pretty and kids like to play with her and then she explodes in their faces and maims or kills them. That’s a real hoot. But don’t tell my mom I said that. She’ll make me wash my tongue with soap.

I’m here today because Asia is transforming very quickly, and I want to be part of all the spiralling violence and environmental destruction. I love that sort of stuff – as those morons in Kyoto have no doubt been bleating about to you. I believe there isn’t a single river left in India with potable water and the water table is plummeting. But you can have Coke instead, it’s cooler and tastes better. And you’re getting those lovely gigantic malls where you can buy anything if you have the cash. It gives me a thrill to know that the lives of rich Innians are improving rapidly and that Innian CEOs’ salaries are beginning to match their western counterparts. That’s lovely. In the US we subsidize our CEOs. We spoil them rotten because we love them. We love our corporate farmers too. We give them billions of dollars of subsidies because they’re really good people. They’re not like your farmers – thin and poor and suicidal. Your farmers don’t deserve subsidies because they’re not good people. You should put them on Prozac. That would bring in some more revenue to US drug companies.

As I was saying last week in the Asia Society, it’s good to know that rich Innians are buying air-conditioners, kitchen appliances and washing machines made by US companies like GE, Whirlpool and Westinghouse. Younger Indians are developing a taste for Dominos Pizzas and revolting hamburgers. This is wonderful news because Americans are tired of being the only people in the world with obesity problems and a truly disgusting cuisine.

But all bad things have good apcess. The good apcess. (An aide leans forward and whispers “Aspect Mr President.”) That’s what I said – the good aspect of our terrible food is that it strengthens our resolve and commitment in our war against Muzzlims – I beg your pardon – against terrorists. I love Muzzlims. The good ones that is, the ones who aren’t terrorists and work in call centres. They’re real nice folks. To defeat terrorists our intelligence agencies are spying on all of you all the time. You have no idea how much we know about you. We have surveillance cameras and wireless devices and software we have put into your computers so that we can watch you all the time. We know where you go, what you buy, who you sleep with. Brig Bother is watching you! Heh! Heh!

I hate terrorists because they think they have a right to kill people too. But when I was small, my mother and my grandmother - you say Naani in Hindi right? My mom and my naani told me that the only person who has the right to kill people, bomb countries and use chemical and newcooler weapons is the President of the United States. And guess who that is!

Begins to whoop and hoot and startle all the animals. The zoo erupts with alarm calls.

I’m very glad to be here because I love animals. I love hunting animals, especially when they are in cages and can’t bite me. Once when I was small a bee bit me and I cried. I also love fighting wars against countries after they have been starved and forced to disarm. You know how clever we were about all that in Eye-raq. I love bombs because you don’t have to see who you’ve killed which really suits cowards like me. But I’m a girlboy and I don’t see why we’re conditioned to expect men to be brave. But you needn’t worry, I’m not here to bomb you or starve you – because Indians are starving anyway, Ha! Ha!

Looks around triumphantly and looks contrite when he realizes he’s made a boo-boo.

Oops…that’s what my granny calls a boo boo! Sorry. The reason I’m here is that I like rich Indians. The reason I like rich Indians is that they are obedient and brainy and that is a pretty rare combination. In the US we consider them model immigrants. I like obedient brainy rich Indians because they bring additional brainpower to help solve problems and provide executives in the US with critical information about the needs of their consumers and customers overseas. India is important as a market for US products. It has one billion people for us to exploit. The best part is that the Indian Government lets us take India’s own stuff - coal, bauxite, minerals, even water and electricity and sell it back to them at huge profits. That’s really fun.

Unfortunately out of these one billion people, most of them are poor. I hate poor people because they have no money to buy anything. I wish they would just disappear. I was glad to hear that tens of thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide. In the US we called that irresponsible self-destructive behaviour. But if we could just speed that up a bit, put it on a fast track trajectory, we could turn things around real fast. But poor people make good maidservants and wage labourers so we need to keep them going.

Soon we hope that US corporations will own all Indian seeds, plants, biodiversity, essential infrastructure and even their new ideas. As I said, Indians are quite brainy and sometimes have good ideas. We can’t afford to let them own their own ideas. We can’t allow farmers to own seeds. Everybody ought to ask us about everything. I love it when everybody needs my permission. Dick says the key word is control.

One of the US corporations that we’re proudest of is owned by Bill Gates. He visits India often. He is a wonderful and generous man. He gives the Indian government millions of dollars to fight HIV Aids. I don’t like people who have HIV Aids because they’re mostly blacks and homos. I like the companies who make Aids drugs that no one can afford. I love that kind of dark, edgy humour. But I was talking about Bill. In return for Bill Gates’ millions the Indian government buys hundreds of millions of dollars worth of computer technology from him. He’s so rich I’m afraid he might burst.

I’m quite rich too. So are my friends and my friends’ friends and my friends’ friends’ friends. Especially Dick Cheney. We work on our filthy deals together. Oil, weapons – all that. Shame about what happened to Enron. But it was good while it lasted. I love Dick especially because he tells me what to say at press conferences. I miss him. But I’ll never go hunting with him. He might shoot me with his illegal gun, and I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m dead.

I’m looking forward to bombing Eye-ran. We have some new weapons we want to test. It should be fun. I hope India will send some soldiers to help us. There are so many of you, it won’t matter much if you lose a few. And you’re committing suicide in droves anyway, which is illegal. Why not get killed legally in Eye-ran or Eye-raq? We could arrange posthumous green cards. We’d have them laminated. But that would be charged to their account. Think about it.

Thankyou for your time. ‘Bye now.
Jay Hind.

Mar 11 , 2006