AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 2070 - Standing committee points out multiple faults in UID 'Aadhar', asks government for fresh legislation

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

Sunday, December 11, 2011

2070 - Standing committee points out multiple faults in UID 'Aadhar', asks government for fresh legislation - Economic Times

10 DEC, 2011, 01.21AM IST, ET BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha-headed standing committee on finance has picked multiple holes in the much-hyped Unique Identification 'Aadhar' Scheme and asked the government to bring forth a fresh legislation before Parliament. The key objections of the committee on the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 include:

NO FEASIBILITY STUDY: No comprehensive feasibility study -- including cost-benefit analysis, comparative costs of aadhar number before approving such an expensive scheme vis-avis various forms of existing identity such as hologram-enabled ration card to eliminate fake and duplicate beneficiaries -- carried out.

APPROVED IN HASTE: Absence of data protection law would make it difficult to deal with issues such as access and misuse of personal information, surveillance, profiling, linking and matching of data bases and securing confidentiality information.

SECURITY GAPS: Entrusting the responsibility of verification of information of individuals to the registrars to ensure that only genuine residents get enrolled into the system may have far-reaching consequences for national security. The panel not sure as to whether complete verification of information of all aadhaar number holders is practically feasible and whether it would deliver the intended results without compromising national security.

DIRECTIONLESS: The UID scheme has been conceptualised with no clarity of purpose and is being implemented in a directionless way and may end up being dependent on private agencies.

UNRELIABLE TECHNOLOGY : The scheme is full of uncertainty in technology as the complex scheme is built on untested, unreliable technology and several assumptions. Despite adverse observations by the UIDAI's biometrics standards committee on error rates of biometrics, the UIDAI is collecting biometrics information.

LIMITED COVERAGE: It is not clear that the UID Scheme would continue beyond the coverage of 200 million of the total population. The exercise could become futile in case the government does not give further mandate.

LACK OF COORDINATION: Serious differences of opinion within the government on the UID Scheme. The Department of Expenditure, ministry of finance, has expressed concern that lack of coordination among at least six agencies collecting information --National Population Registry, MNREGS, BPL Census, UIDAI, RSBY - is leading to duplication of efforts and expenditure.

The Home Ministry has raised serious security concern over involvement of private agencies in large scale scheme. The Ministry of Planning has expressed reservation over the merits and functioning of the UIDAI and the necessity of collection of iris image.

The National Informatics Centre has pointed out that issues relating to privacy and security of UID data could be better handled by storing in a government data centre.