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, September 27, 2011

1636 - Is Nandan Nilekani's UID dream run over? - ECONOMIC TIMES

27 SEP, 2011, 07.55AM IST, 
M RAJSHEKHAR, VIKAS DHOOT AND SOMA BANERJEE,
ET BUREAU

( These) various pulls and pressures mean that when it comes to policy, the urgent wins over the important, tactic triumphs over strategy, and patronage over public good." -Nandan Nilekani in his 2008 book Imagining India
Nilekani had a ringside view of the workings of the government then, as a member of a few advisory panels . For the last two years, he's been in the ring as the head of a government institution whose work has import for every Indian, mostly sheltered from those pulls and pressures. But, lately, his institution and he might be feeling it more than ever before, more so considering where the opposition is coming from: other parts of the government.

The reasons for the differences are many: territorial, civil liberties, intellectual, political and technological. Put it all together and it gives the impression that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) - a novelty in the delivery of a government service - is under siege. From within the government. Nilekani shrugs it off as a "process of debate" natural to a project of such scale and transformational impact. "An important lesson I have learnt is that in the public space, there are a lot more stakeholders with different views," says the UIDAI chairman.

"We have to work with them and build consensus, which is what we are doing." But another top UIDAI official, not wanting to be identified, points to motives in the guise of differences: "It is part skepticism, part vested interests." The significance of the UIDAI is at many levels. It is about the future of when and how 1.2 billion Indians receive unique ID (UID) numbers, called Aadhaar. This number is envisaged to become the backbone of many financial transactions, including the ongoing morphing of the government subsidy and welfare system into cash transfers.

It is also about whether bright minds in the private sector can cross over to the government and make a difference. Nilekani is as big and bright as they come. He was comfortable and wanted in Infosys, the IT company he co-founded, till Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called him in early-2009 to head UIDAI, at the effective rank of a cabinet minister. Two years and two months into his five-year term, Nilekani must truly feel like a minister, experiencing government in all its hues.

PULLS AND PRESSURES

Here's the count for the last two months. The finance ministry, which has endorsed virtually every UIDAI decision so far, has rejected its demand to increase its biometric capture mandate from 200 million to all 1.2 billion, and its outlay from Rs 3,023 crore to Rs 17,863 crore. Earlier, the home ministry questioned the accuracy of the UIDAI data, effectively sending out the message that its own entity that does the Census will collect biometrics. The ministry of rural development is planning its own biometric cards.

And, says Bhartruhari Mahtab, an MP from the Biju Janata Dal and a member of the committee evaluating the bill to give UIDAI legal status: "Most members were unconvinced about the need for the UIDAI." (See graphic: Difference of Opinion) It's unlikely the government will do a Uturn since Nilekani and the UIDAI came in with backing from the Congress high command. Even the 15,000 crore additional demand, which was rejected, was a pitch for additional responsibilities and funds. Both Nilekani's and UIDAI's mandate have continuously increased, notably on how to leverage Aadhaar for transactions.

"We are plumbers," says UIDAI directorgeneral RS Sharma. "We are implementing a project given to us by the government. And we are working within our mandate." Today, the UIDAI has about 200 full-time employees, including 60 from the private sector. But as it pitches for more, as its engagement with other parts of the government and states intensifies, the pulls and pressures are multiplying. A senior bureaucrat in the ministry of labour, not wanting to be identified, says UIDAI has assumed it has a great idea the rest of the world will fall in love with. "You cannot push this down people's throat," he says. 

COMMENTS

Lal Narang (Pune)
This brave man dynamic and full of ideas had a dream unparallel and befitting his qualifications and zest and when he started the road seemed ready to welcome him on journey to the end,,,yet trust the men in power, men with vested interests to seek their own pound of flesh where none was available. Some of them simply ignorant of what the project meant for the country and the over all benefit for a common man and under common man and yet some trying to bring in factors like caste creed and regions in the equation blocked the road and stopped the good man from going further down the road... Wise man as he is he understood and envisaged all possible hurdles and had taken into account all possible factors but it would seem that it what ever he tries to do the selfish, greedy and under developed people in the Government can never be convinced .... This one examples will be more than sufficient to prove that any thing for the betterment of the common lot and the country become unpalatable and unacceptable by these leaders whose right place is in lunati assylum -if they are accepted...

Kanwal Krishen Mam (Beijing)
It is pity to kill the good project. I feel India need to have only one identity document which should be used universally all over India. This shall save the tax payer's money which are being spent by individual Govt. departments such as Voters Card, PAN etc. Also by this majour control can be exercised on various problems faced for which we do not have any solution.

Indian (Bharath) 
I think Nilekani needs to go and meet Anna for once and discuss with him the importance of this exercise in the lives of the underprivileged and 'should be' beneficieries of Govt. Programmes. This card will be giving Anna's fight against corruption a true 21st century angle. Moreover it will also relieve to a great extent the menace of infiltration we are facing at our borders as till date we do not know who is an Indian Citizen by the looks. They all look the same on both sides of India's borders for it were all one when the British rule gave way to the " Great Indian Dynastic" rule. Unless and until the People of India take it into their hearts this is going to be non starter as the Political & Bureaucratic Mafia along with the religious vested interests will see to it that the term UID and the word Aadhaar is removed even from the Indian edition Dictionaries. - Jai Hind!!

Moorthy (Chennai)
Already we have many UIDs, for example PAN,passport,driving license, voter id etc,. Is seems PAN will serve the propose. Investing huge money for UID may not be worth.

SS (India) replies to Wilson Thampi
For 200 years british could not give electricity or anything. What was left was a nation with 35 years of average life expectancy and 12% literacy. Atleast Indian govt has done far better in 60 years than what British did. I too am dissatisfied with progress, but important not to be sarcastic in every comment. Find solutions if you think UID is right, vs finding problems. There are many who know how to be sarcastic or find problems but only few who find solutions. We need nation of people who find solutions and not sit on sidelines commenting sarcastic.

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