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, October 11, 2011

1692 - FE Editorial : Unique identity Crisis

Posted: Monday, Oct 03, 2011 at 0323 hrs IST

: Nothing illustrates the stasis in the government better than the predicament of the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI). Suddenly, out of the blue, the much-lauded project run by one of India’s most successful professionals has become the focus of the ire of various arms of the government for rather disparate reasons—just as it successfully completes the first anniversary of the Aadhaar programme enrolling more than 10 crore people and generating more than 3.75 crore Aadhaar numbers. 

The problems came into fore a few weeks ago when the finance ministry rejected UIDAI’s request for a R14,000-crore expenditure programme. 

After this, the Planning Commission too jumped into the fray, suddenly awakening to the deficiency in the structure and functioning of the authority. Adding to the confusion were the apparently negative comments made by the ministry of home affairs (MoHA) on the flaws in the enrolment process and the security of the biometric data. The home ministry’s apparently nervous of the UIDAI’s efforts to extend its Aadhaar enrolment mandate, as the office of the Registrar General of India, an arm of the ministry, is simultaneously compiling a national population register (NPR), which is a comprehensive identity database, as a part of the 2011 census operations currently under way. 

The confusion about the turf of UIDAI and the MoHA is rather surprising, given the fact that an EGoM was constituted as early as 2006 to collate the two schemes, namely the NPR and the unique identification number project, as Aadhaar was then known.

RBI made the waters murkier by first going against the finance ministry notification that was issued in 2010—to permit the use of Aadhaar numbers as an officially valid document to satisfy the know your customer (KYC) norms—by limiting the use of the Aadhaar numbers to “small accounts”. 

It then retracted, by allowing use of Aadhaar numbers to all bank accounts without any limitations, but only after again insisting that the banks must satisfy themselves about the current address of the customer. RBI’s reluctance to fully accept the Aadhaar numbers for the KYC norms is surprising, given that more than a dozen leading banks in the country are partnering with UIDAI to deliver Aadhaar numbers to the citizens, and also when the Aadhaar numbers have been accepted by the insurance companies and Sebi for meeting KYC norms.

The rumblings against UIDAI are too synchronised to been seen as random occurrences that happen in major projects in vibrant democracies.

It is now for the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI Authority, headed by the Prime Minister, to quickly step in and resolve the issues so that the Aadhaar project moves unhindered and provides a unique number to every citizen. 

Keep in mind, Aadhar is probably the most ambitious project the UPA-2 has come up with and, if used judiciously, has game-changing potential.
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