AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 2221 - Turf war between UIDAI, home ministry intensifies news

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, January 20, 2012

2221 - Turf war between UIDAI, home ministry intensifies news - dOMAIN b

20 January 2012

The simmering turf war between the home ministry and the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UADAI) intensified on Thursday, with home minister P Chidambaram writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue.

In a one-page letter, Chidambaram has asked Singh to ''instruct'' the Planning Commission to bring a note to the cabinet on the status of the UIDAI, so that there is ''clarity'' on which agency – the Registrar-General of India (RGI) or the UIDAI – will carry on with the task of capturing the biometric data of the population.

The UIDAI comes under the nodal authority of the Planning Commission while the RGI functions under the home ministry.

Meanwhile the home secretary has also written to the cabinet secretary, saying that the UID data is not reliable as anyone can get themselves registered under any name with any address.

The note also says that the UID doesn't accept the ministry of home affairs' data as it sees the ministry as competition.
The letter comes not just in the wake of a standing committee of Parliament rejecting the UIDAI bill, but two articles in the media attacking Chidambaram for obstructing the progress of the scheme.

'Some inspired stories have appeared in the media painting the MHA black and presenting distorted facts. I enclose two extracts – one from Tthe Economist and the other from the Hindustan Times,'' Chidambaram has written.

Both letters have been accessed by sections of the media.

The home minister says in his letter that the work of the RGI - which had been asked to collect biometric data of all usual residents in the country and send it to the UIDAI for checking duplication and generating Aadhar numbers - was ''proceeding well and is expected to be completed by mid-2013''.

''Since there is no clarity on who will capture the biometric data - the RGI or the UIDAI - I had requested the Planning Commission a few months ago to bring a paper to the cabinet or the appropriate cabinet committee and obtain a decision in the matter,'' he has written, adding that he himself had spoken to Ahluwalia several times on this.

Chidambaram ends his letter to the prime minister saying, ''In my respectful submission, it would not be in the interest of the government to allow the controversy to be played out in the media.''

In his earlier letter to Plan panel chief Ahluwalia, the home minister had insisted that data collected by the UIDAI did not meet the degree of assurance required under the National Population Register from the point of view of national security.

He had said that the possibility of inclusion of non-usual residents and creation of a false identity profile is very real.

However, UIDAI chairman Nilekani had riposted, "The Aadhaar cards have been given based on the UID data taken as per the accepted procedure."

Opinions on the matter are as divided as the above correspondence suggests. Some feel the problem has arisen because the logical order of the UID project has been put back to front. The assurance of a unique identity came first, then followed fund allocation, and then a feasibility study and the bill to govern it, which has been rejected by the standing committee.

As a result of this the UIDAI exercise has blown up Rs672 crore up to November 2011 without any tangible results to show for it, they say.

Others say that Nilekani, an information technology specialist before he was roped in for the project by Prime Minister Singh, is the right man for the job, but is being stymied by lack of funds and facilities and opposition from the home ministry to what it regards as a parallel centre, which invades on its turf.