By AMAN SHARMA
Last updated at 1:43 AM on 21st January 2012
With a crucial cabinet meeting on the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Aadhaar cards likely next week, the battle lines are clearly drawn.
The home ministry, under P. Chidambaram, wants to be solely in charge of all unique-identity Aadhaar enrolment.
But technocrat Nandan Nilekani, who heads the UIDAI, also has powerful backers.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2089716/Montek-Singh-P-Chidambaram-faceoff-UID-Aadhaar-cards.html#ixzz1k4hN3HHV
Montek Singh, pictured left is backing the proposals regarding the Aadhaar cards, where the home ministry under P. Chidambaram (right) is against them
Both finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia are batting for him.
The UIDAI sources told MAIL TODAY that they were on the verge of completing 200 million enrolments through the Multiple Registrar Model and would like to continue in the same vein.
This is a battle which is going down to the wire: Sole enroller vs multiple channels so that quicker issuance of the identity cards remains at the core of the fight.
Pushing the envelope, the home ministry wants to conduct security checks on the UIDAI servers and the private persons deployed by it for collecting data for the Aadhaar cards.
This step comes even as the cabinet would on Wednesday decide whether the UIDAI should be allowed to collect the biometrics beyond the 20-crore enrolment limit fixed initially.
The government sources said if the cabinet decided in favour of Nilekani's proposal to capture the data of all Indian residents, the MHA would prefer to keep the UIDAI under its thumb by subjecting the authority's servers and personnel to rigid security checks.
Planning Commission's deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, meanwhile, backed the UIDAI's ambition. 'In our view, the UIDAI should continue.
'This can be done parallel to what the others (MHA) are doing. Whatever UIDAI is doing is the right thing to do,' Ahluwalia said.
Union home secretary R.K. Singh made the ministry's position clear to cabinet secretary Ajit Seth in a letter on January 16, saying the MHA was 'strongly opposed' to the UIDAI's proposal as the biometric collection process was 'fraught with security risks'.
The ministry is collecting biometrics and issuing Resident Identity Cards under its `6,649-crore National Population Register project while the UIDAI is supposed to issue the unique numbers after deduplicating the MHA data.
'The UIDAI…sees the home ministry's project as competition. The MHA finds it difficult to understand that while the UIDAI is willing to accept documents issued by third parties at the time of enrolment, it finds it difficult to accept the data collected by government servants for processing.
'The UIDAI refuses to accept the registrar general of India's data for de-duplication citing various grounds while it proceeds to collect data itself,' Singh's letter stated.
The home secretary pointed out that the UIDAI data was not reliable since 'anyone can get himself registered under any name with any address'.
The system to store this data in the servers was also not foolproof, he said.
Seeking to avoid 'duplication of effort', the MHA sought to know the fate of its project if the UIDAI were permitted to collect biometrics across the entire country.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2089716/Montek-Singh-P-Chidambaram-faceoff-UID-Aadhaar-cards.html#ixzz1k4i1YKz7
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
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
