AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 2891 - Mamata Banerjee turns down 'Aadhaar' enrolment

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

Sunday, February 3, 2013

2891 - Mamata Banerjee turns down 'Aadhaar' enrolment

Mamata Banerjee turns down 'Aadhaar' enrolment

By Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN | Dec 23, 2012, 06.12 AM IST

KOLKATA: Here's another instance of chief minister Mamata Banerjee shedding her VVIP status to integrate with the aam aadmi. She has refused biometric enrolment in the National Population Register (NPR) to show solidarity with the people of her state where execution of the programme has been inordinately slow.

The biometric enrolment is the first step to get the 12-digit unique identification (UID) or the Aadhaar number which can be used in opening bank accounts for beneficiaries of central welfare schemes under various heads like MGNREGA, student scholarships etc.

On November 26, officials from the census directorate visited the chief minister's 30-B Harish Chatterjee Street residence, seeking permission for the biometric enrolment next Sunday (December 2). But Mamata opted out at the last moment, even as the rest of the household had their biometrics done. The next person in the list of VVIPs is governor M K Narayanan.

An official said, "The chief minister didn't want to be one of the privileged few to have the biometric enrolment when most Kolkatans, and the rest of the people of the state, were still not covered."

Trinamool MP Subrata Bakshi said, "Once again, she has set an example as a true leader. When most of the population remains outside the Aadhaar programme, she thought it wouldn't be fair to enrol just because she is the chief minister of the state."

Officials said Mamata is peeved about the fact that no district in her state was in the recently declared list of 51 Aadhaar districts because of the tardy pace in execution.

Only 18% of the population has so far been covered under the programme which is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's pet project. Considering Singh's target of providing Aadhaar numbers to 60crore people by 2014, Bengal's figure is dismal. According to data available till November, of the 8,22,12,962 eligible residents of the state, only 1,54,54,600 have been covered.

According to the Census Act 1948, municipal corporations and police are supposed to assist the census directorate in executing any enumeration exercise. Thanks to the lack of cooperation by the state machinery and non-availability of biometric kits, the ambitious plan is lagging behind in Bengal. The census directorate, which is overseeing NPR in the state, doesn't have the manpower to execute the programme on its own. The census directorate recently sent a report to state home secretary Basudeb Banerjee that only 1,005 of the targeted 3,330 biometric kits had been installed in the state.

At the chief minister's insistence, the home secretary recently convened a meeting and asked district magistrates to expedite NPR and take the percentage of population covered to some respectable figure. The census directorate intends covering 61% of Kolkata by February. The second round of biometric enrolment will begin from January 15. The programme is yet to take off in Salt Lake where the census directorate is located. Sources said the municipality has been deferring the programme pleading lack of staff.

The census directorate had started and set the NPR ball rolling with a pilot project in Howrah in July 2011. Work is yet to begin in three districts - North Dinajpur, Bankura and Purulia. The authorities want to cover 90 per cent of the population in Howrah so that it can be included in the list of Aadhaar districts. So far, 79 per cent of the work has been executed in Howrah.