AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 2008 - MNIC Vs UID - M.Moni

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

Friday, November 25, 2011

2008 - MNIC Vs UID - M.Moni - Inclusion

It is better to complete either MNIC or UID without biometric inputs for 1.2 Billion people and as and when the technology matures and gains confidence of the citizens, get the biometric inputs collected and add to the MNIC database or UID database.

The 24-questions put to Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI, and his answers in the last issue of INCLUSION is what makes me write these observations in my personal capacity.

Nilekani says “In India, the purpose of the UID project is very simple; it is to give every Indian resident a unique number, preventing the kind of duplication that currently exists. The complexity of the issue is in making sure that everybody in a population of 1.2 billion gets a unique number, and therein lies the challenge of scale and technology.” The categorical statement as per the UIDAI website notes: “Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will issue for all residents. The number will be stored in a centralised database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information—photograph, ten fingerprints and iris—of each individual.” He also mentions that “the UID project is a complex technological project. It is unprecedented in scale, and a huge amount of energy and time has been spent in creating an open technology platform, which is adaptable to changes as technology develops.”

I agree with Sir James Crosby’s Case on UID (in Britain) that “the Government should avoid picking a technology and building a strategy to match.” This impression is gaining strength day by day.

Understanding requirement of establishing unique identity for Indians, the Government of India introduced, in 1993, photo identity cards for citizens who were eligible to vote, in 2009, a 12-digit Unique Identification Number (UID) for all residents. The National Population Register, which will give MNIC, is covered under the Citizenship Act 1955. Both MNIC and UID have got biometric inputs. There are strong ‘Say-no-to-Aadhaar’ as well as ‘Say-no-to-MNIC’ voices.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has questioned the reliability of data being collected by UIDAI and this data is likely to be rejected by the NPR.

Verification of identity by the UIDAI will be charged at 10 per query. I strongly feel that as the UIDAI has been established with the tax payers’ money, this verification charge should be waived so as to strengthen both national security and social security. The Internal security, after all, is the most important service required in the country.
Union Minister for Planning, Ashwini Kumar says that “the review (of Aadhaar) by Planning Commission is extremely important and necessary as the initiative is based on usage of ICT platform.” Ironically in India, legal systems are ICT-enabled whereas the lCT Systems are not legally enabled.

After reading various related articles, I gain the impression that it has become a clash of interests between MNIC and UID. To facilitate “inclusion” and march towards “more inclusive growth” during the 12th Plan period, it is better to complete either MNIC or UID without biometric inputs for 1.2 Billion people and as and when the technology matures and gains confidence of the citizens, get the biometric inputs collected and add to the MNIC database or UID database. Let us not spend too much of tax payers’ money on this sub-component, i.e. bio-metric.

Given our 15,000 km of international border and 5,500 km of coastal intelligence agencies find it difficult to keep a check on infiltrators, because illegal immigrants acquire proof of identity and address from intermediaries and mingle with common Indians.

There is a need for a national policy on “identity access and management (IAM)” for the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) in India. Report of a National Task Force, set up under the chairmanship of Professor Syed Ismail Ahson, Department of Computer Science, Jamia Milia Islamia, can take care of “privacy and security” issues. This report is available at http://egovstandards.gov.in.

I wish UIDAI spells out at the earliest that it is not concerned with how its data will be used. This will help it to provide Aadhaar to all Indian Citizens in time before the 2014 general election. I also wish that the Election Commission of India as well as the State Election Commissions make MNIC mandatory for voting as the MNIC has UID as its AADHAAR.

M Moni is Deputy Director General with National Informatics Centre (NIC)

Feedback | N K Singh, Rajya Sabha MP

“Fostering a meaningful discussion outside Government on implementation of the UID would be beneficial. It is a project which has wider policy implications beyond the mere completion of the UID project itself. A number of NGOs have already raised important concerns. The UID bill is pending Parliamentary enactment. This is a good time for Think Tank organisations like Skoch Foundation to trigger a meaningful debate with a mix of NGOs, experts with domain knowledge, and others who are likely beneficiaries/implementers” – N K Singh, Rajya Sabha MP