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

Saturday, March 31, 2012

2482 - House panel raps Planning Comm for breach of trust on new UID law - The Pioneer

House panel raps Planning Comm for breach of trust on new UID law

Friday, 30 March 2012 00:40Seema Sindhu | New DelhiHits: 270

Although the differences between the Planning Commission and the Home Ministry on Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) have been resolved, problems for the Plan Panel are not over yet. Now, the Plan Panel has been lambasted for breach of trust by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. The committee had raised concerns on some of the proposals of the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 and asked the panel to re-introduce the Bill accordingly but it didn’t do the same but got more fund allocated for the project instead.

In a meeting on Wednesday, Committee Chairman Yashwant Sinha blasted the Plan Panel for its failure to re-introduce the UID Bill. According to highly-placed sources, Sinha sternly told Plan Panel Member Secretary Sudha Pillai that the panel was “bypassing parliamentary procedure and inviting serious problems by not having re-introduced the Bill and simultaneously making further fund allocations for the project”.

In December last year, the Committee had asked the Plan Panel to re-work the UID Bill, 2010. The Bill proposed for the creation of the National Identity Authority of India, which would oversee the implementation of the Aadhaar project. The Bill was to ensure that the authority has the legal footing to execute the project. It also sought to define the penalties for misuse of the data collected under the UID project.

The Committee had said that the Bill was “unacceptable” in its present form. It had also raised concerns over the cost of the project, lack of clarity on the total expenditure on the project, privacy of the data collected under the project.

After which the Panel had withdrawn the Bill and said that it would introduce a new Bill seeking enactment of UID into a law. While this has not happened yet, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee allocated Rs 1,758 crore more for the project in the Budget 2012-13. The Government has already spent Rs 14,232 on the project. Sinha cited this and said that this is violation of parliamentary procedure.

In addition, in January this year, the Government had also extended the mandate Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) to enrol an extra 40 crore people. Putting the conflict between the Plan Panel and Home Ministry on the duplication issues to rest, the Government had cleared the UIDAI’s proposal to enrol an extra 40 crore people in 16 States, saying the biometrics in other States will be collected under the National Population Register project.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was created in January 2009 and had been mandated to register 20 crore people for providing a unique identification number, the ‘Aadhar’, by March 2012. The Authority is set to cross the target by the end of this month, with a million enrolments every day.

While the project has been surrounded a number of controversies, it is considered very important from the point of view that it will not only provide each citizen an identification card ensuring online verification and help financial inclusion, but also check pilferage in various social sector programmes which involve huge subsidies.

Sinha has asked the Panel to come up with a reply within next 10 days.