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

Monday, January 23, 2012

2238 - UID project cost may not cross Rs 18,000 cr: Aadhaar Project Mission Director - Economic Times

PTI Jan 20, 2012, 10.08PM IST

BANGALORE: The total cost of allocating unique identification numbers to the 1.2 billion population in the country may not cross Rs 18,000 crore, Aadhaar Project Mission Director Ram Sewak Sharma on Friday said.

"... The de-duplication work has been brought down to just Rs 2.75 per person and the entire outsourcing work will cost Rs 50 per citizen. The total cost may run up to Rs 150 per person which amounts to Rs 18,000 crore...," the UIDAI director general told reporters here.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on UIDAI raised serious questions about the idea of Aadhaar itself fearing that the project would ultimately cost the nation a fortune. It demanded a re-look at the foundational principles on which the project was conceived.

It had said that the project raises serious questions about the enrolment process which was riddled with "serious lacunae".

The UID can cut down pilferage of subsidies provided to the citizens, Sharma said, adding the Centre provided Rs 3 lakh crore of subsidies every year.
UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani, who was also present in the press conference, however, played safe by saying that the committee report was being analysed by the Union government which would take a suitable decision.

To a question he said this report would not hamper the project nor slow it down. "We will be approaching 200 million mark by this month end of first week of February. We are enrolling nearly one million people every year."

However, he said the authority would not be in a position to filter foreign nationals residing illegally in India.
When asked about the National Population Registry advocated by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Nilekani said there was a 'group' which wanted its merger with UID project, but the Union Cabinet would take a final decision.

UIDAI Technology Head Srikanth Nadhamuni said the authority had ensured extensive use of encryption to safeguard the data collected.

"We have designed extremely sophisticated software, Biometrics, fraud detection systems and data mining at the back end... We also follow due protocols and processes for data security and protection," Nandhamuni said, allaying fears of misusing of personal details listed in Aadhaar Unique Identification numbers.

UIDAI Chief Architect Pramod Varma said the data centres had a seamless physical as well as digital security systems in place at the city and Greater Noida facilities and was a 'extremely secured zone'.

He said UIDAI had employed 'logical security' by petitioning data centre into zones separating them using firewall and network intrusion detection and prevention system.

"Every enrolment data packet is always stored in Public Key Infrastructure encrypted, tamper proof files and are never decrypted or modified during transit until it reaches UIDAI's data centres," he said.
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