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

2486 - An integrated system for citizen-friendly policing - eGov

An integrated system for citizen-friendly policing - eGov

Filed under: Current Issue,Featured,Interviews,Magazine,March 2012

Manoj Agarwal
IGP, SCRB, Government of Gujarat

Gujarat IG of Police Manoj Agarwal heads the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB). He has an important role in the implementation of the Home Department Integrated IT Solution that would bring about far-reaching changes to the functioning of the state’s Home Department, including the police. In a discussion with Anand Agarwal and Sunil Kumar, he talks of the vision behind HDIITS, its current implementation status and how it is broader in scope than the CCTNS of the Union Home Ministry

How was the HDIITS conceptualised, and what benefits are sought to be derived from it?

The Home Department Integrated IT Solution or HDIITS was conceptualized when it was realized that a lot of initiatives are taken down the line at the district level or block level. It was realized that we should be thinking about the whole process holistically. It should be centrally tackled and each and every function should be covered and this led to HDIITS being planned.

HDIITS would build a centralised repository of crime and criminal information database, which will be shared across various law enforcement agencies in the state. This will help in effective crime investigation and quicker turnout times for cases solving. The system also has a citizen website interface, which will help the police to deliver quality services to citizens and hence will promote a strong and cordial relationship between police and citizens in the state. It will also increase transparency and openness.

So the entire paperwork-based system is going to be transformed into an electronic system…
Yes, more or less. The concept is that we would move maximum record keeping to electronic mode. It would not be entirely paperless police station, as a number of documents are legally required. For example, the FIR requires signature of the complainant etc., so some paperwork would still be there, but yes, we will be deploying electronic record keeping to a large extent.

And what is the implementation status of the system?
We are at a very advanced stage. The software is more or less ready and a lot of user acceptance tests have been conducted. Data digitisation has also been completed for a number of years and we have conducted many training sessions as well. The only thing is that the hardware has not yet been purchased. The tender has been awarded recently. Once the hardware comes in, it will be more or less online for everyone. Already we have very good connectivity in Gujarat, so that would not be a problem.

We finalised the hardware contract just a while back, and expect around 90 working days for the entire system to be operational. However, I would be a little more conservative, and think that by the middle of 2012, we should have the system in place.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed a similar system – the CCTNS. What are the points of divergence between your project and the central one?
I would not call it divergence. The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project is a successor to the CIPA project – Common Integrated Police Application. At the time CIPA was planned, we had very politely told them that we would not be taking up CIPA and since we already had connected police stations through the Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN), we decided not to go for a standalone type of system that was envisaged under CIPA. We decided to go ahead with HDIITS.

The centre has now realised the importance of interconnected police stations and the CCTNS is now talking of connecting police stations. Even the CCTNS is covering only the core applications that are limited to investigation and police complaints. HDIITS is covering a much broader range of applications, including investigations, administration, prisons, home guards etc. So the HDIITS is much broader in scope than CCTNS which is covering uniform aspects of police work across states, and make records available nationwide.

Going forward, do you see a situation where every state would have to develop systems similar to HDIITS for the aspects not covered by the CCTNS?
That is already happening. They are now asking the system integrators in the states to take up other parts of police functioning of the state not covered by the CCTNS. So while the CCTNS would provide a common nationwide system for the investigative and crime-related work, other areas would be covered by state-specific systems. We are well on the way to implementing this through the HDIITS which is an integrated system that would cover around 70,000 police personnel, 30,000 honorary staff and 5,000 administrative staff in over 1000 offices across the state.