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

Saturday, October 1, 2011

1653 - Montek firmly in favour of UIDAI autonomy - Live Mint

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2011 11:30 AM IST

No complaints against UIDAI flexibility, would like it to be financially self-contained with own financial adviser
Surabhi Agarwal & Sangeeta Singh

New Delhi: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, has come out clearly in favour of complete autonomy for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is spearheading the government’s ambitious Aadhaar project.

His comment was aimed at ending the controversy that broke out after a newspaper report on a note from the Planning Commission to the finance ministry appeared to indicate that the Planning Commission wanted more stringent controls on the dispenser of national identity numbers. UIDAI, which marked its first anniversary on Thursday, is currently attached to the Planning Commission.


“The issue of financial advisers is linked to the issue of autonomy,” Ahluwalia said. “I would like UIDAI to be financially self-contained with its own financial adviser entrusted with making expenditures within their approved budget while observing relevant government rules.”

His comments came in response to queries from Mint over the note that raised concerns about the UIDAI’s current structure and also called for an independent financial adviser to the project. Once UIDAI becomes a statutory body, having its own financial adviser would be easy, Ahluwalia said. But as long as it is an attached office of the Planning Commission, the financial responsibility rests with the financial adviser of the Planning Commission and the secretary.

“If files relating to expenditure by UIDAI have to go through the Planning Commission then they don’t have financial autonomy,” Ahluwalia said. “I have asked our people to check whether full delegation is possible.” He said news reports have mistakenly represented this as a complaint against the flexibility that UIDAI is seeking.

“This is wrong. My aim is to persuade finance ministry to allow the fullest delegation possible so that they will have autonomy and also the responsibility,” added Ahluwalia.
The Economic Times carried a report on the Planning Commission’s note to the finance ministry on 28 September. “UIDAI’s present system represents a major departure from government procedures and removes all inbuilt checks and balances,” the paper cited the note as saying. “We need a relook at the UIDAI’s administrative structure.”
The authority is accountable to Parliament and to various agencies such as the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Central Vigilance Commission as also the Right to Information Act and questions from law makers, said Nandan Nilekani, UIDAI chairman, reinforcing its status as a government department and one that follows all rules and regulations.

“All the powers that we exert are delegated to us by the appropriate authority,” he said. “Let me assure you that we follow the highest standards of governance, we have total transparency in our activities, we follow very robust procurement processes, the website has instant information on all the tenders that we issue and our website has a quarterly update on our finance.”

Earlier, explaining the motive behind the letter to the finance ministry, Sudha Pillai, member secretary, Planning Commission, said, “We have asked for an independent financial adviser in case of UIDAI. Financial advisers, in any such body set up by the government for particular purposes, have to be truly independent,” she told Mint.

In the letter, the commission had objected to the decision-making structure in the UIDAI that delegates the powers of a financial adviser to a deputy director-general who is also responsible for the authority’s programmes and projects.

“We are an attached office of the Planning Commission, and by a series of government orders authority has been delegated to us,” Nilekani said. “We are absolutely clear that we are working within the powers that have been delegated to us, if somebody feels that those powers should be different, then that’s a different issue all together.”

UIDAI, which issued the first Aadhaar number in Tembli village of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra last year, has so far issued IDs to 37 million people. There are almost 100 million people who have registered for the project and are yet to be issued the numbers.

Over the last few weeks, UID’s technology systems have gone through a major upgrade that will make the process of number generation faster, Nilekani said. Aadhaar aims to generate one million numbers every day from October this year.

Addressing another controversy over finances, Nilekani said that the authority has enough funding to build the back-end required for the project.

“There are no question of the finances,” he said. “We have made the necessary application for money, which is under government process.” This additional money will be required to pay the registrars for enrolling 200 million people that UID currently has permission for. As per the Budget speech of the finance minister, UIDAI has a mandate to enroll 200 million people after which the national population register is supposed to feed the enrolment data such as demographics and biometrics to UID.

However, as per reports, UIDAI had asked the finance ministry for an extra Rs. 15,000 crore to enrol the entire population of the country, a demand that has been rejected. As to what happens after UID reaches the 200 million mark, Nilekani said that decision “is with the Cabinet”.
UIDAI has set a target of enrolling 600 million by 2014.

surabhi.a@livemint.com


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