AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 1758 - UID shelves plan to launch Aadhaar cards

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, November 3, 2011

1758 - UID shelves plan to launch Aadhaar cards - Live Mint

Posted: Thu, Nov 3 2011. 1:00 AM IST

The organization is constrained by the policy decision of enrolling only 200 million people

Surabhi Agarwal

New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has shelved plans to issue Aadhaar smart cards, in possibly the first sign of the constraint it faces as it is mandated to enroll only 200 million residents, or about 15% of the country’s population.

The authority initially planned to communicate the Aadhaar numbers only via letters but decided a few months ago to issue smart cards that would have bar codes containing the Aadhaar number and demographic data.

The plan was conceived to make it simple for people to access various services such as banking and government subsidies through Aadhaar by merely swiping the cards.

R.S. Sharma, director general of UIDAI, said the authority has cancelled its tender for the smart cards as it is constrained by the policy decision of enrolling only 200 million people, after which the National Population Register (NPR), being implemented by the Registrar General of India alongside the Census 2011 exercise, will take over.

R.S. Sharma, director general of UIDAI. File photo

“There is no visibility after that as of now,” he said.
UIDAI has enrolled 120 million people so far and expects to cover 160-170 million by December or January—the time the tender was to be finalized.

Only the remaining 30-40 million people could have been issued Aadhaar cards then “and that would not have got us the best prices from vendors,” said Sharma, explaining the rationale behind the cancellation.

UIDAI had invited bids from vendors to print around 150 million cards in the first phase.

Of the 120 million enrolments, UIDAI has issued Aadhaar numbers to nearly 60 million people and has been issuing one million numbers every day from October.

An expert who has been involved with UIDAI as well as NPR said UIDAI’s plan to issue smart cards was too ambitious.

“They should stick to their original mandate of issuing just numbers as NPR is already issuing cards, which will have the UID number printed on it,” the official said.

UIDAI spends Rs100-150 per enrolment and issuing cards would add Rs50-100 to the cost, he said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. “That money could be used to double the number of enrolments that UIDAI does to ensure the momentum is maintained and UID-linked services are rolled out quickly.”

The expenditure finance committee recently approved around Rs8,800 crore for UIDAI to build its backend operations and pay its agencies for the enrolments. The authority pays Rs50 per enrolment to its registers.

The government has set a target of 600 million Aadhaar numbers by 2014 but has so far allowed enrolment of only 200 million people by UIDAI. NPR is supposed to feed the UIDAI system with biometric data after that, which will be de-duplicated by it and Aadhaar numbers issued.

UIDAI plans to approach the Cabinet Committee on UID to ensure continuity of the project and has sent a note to its parent body, the Planning Commission, which will forward it to the Cabinet for a decision.

surabhi.a@livemint.com