From: Gopal Krishna <krishnagreen@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2013 12:34:17 +0530
Subject: [Arkitect India] Stop enrolment shivir of illegitimate and
illegal biometric UID/Aadhaar number for media persons in public
interest [9 Attachments]
To:
Hon'ble Chairman,
Press Council of India (PCI),
Soochna Bhavan,
Lodhi Road,
New Delhi-110003
Hon'ble Members
PCI
New Delhi
Subject- Stop enrolment shivir of illegitimate and illegal biometric
UID/Aadhaar number for media persons in public interest
Sir,
This is to seek your urgent intervention to stop the proposed enrolment
shivir for biometric Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar number for media
persons, we wish to seek immediate intervention to stop enrolment of
UID/Aadhaar number in public interest. This initiative is unethical and
violates the code of ethics for journalists.
On behalf of Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL), we wish to inform
you about our shock and disbelief at the plan of Delhi Journalists
Association (DJA) and Indraprastha Press Club of India with support from
the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to organise a shivir for media people
to enrol for biometric Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar number which is
illegitimate and illegal.
We submit that IMA's support for an exercise like biometric identification
is akin to German Medical Association's decision to support medical
atrocities committed during the 1930s and 1940s while under Nazi rule for
which they have apologized after 75 years. IMA may have to regret in the
same way. ( Reference: The Lancet, Volume 380, Issue 9852, Page 1472, 27
October 2012)
We submit that Dr Mohan Rao, Professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and
Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has underlined that
"the claim that the Unique Identification project will facilitate the
delivery of basic health services is dishonest."
www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2824/stories/20111202282401900.htm
It is noteworthy that aadhaar/UID is a biometric identifier number of 12
digits and not a card. Such schemes have been abandoned by countries like
Australia, UK, France and China because it raised concerns about
indiscriminate surveillance.
We submit that history is testimony to misuse of such systems by despotic
forces. German rulers used IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine in the
census of the country in 1933 and since there was a provision for
identifying race and ethnicity, the Nazi rulers with the help of IBM could
conveniently count and identify the Jews whom they savagely butchered out
of racial hatred. One, therefore, cannot rule out the possibility of this
power being misused by persons in power to access private details such as
religious, racial, caste or even political profiling from Aadhaar data base
to serve undemocratic, illegal and unethical purposes for use in ways that
may pose a risk to the life or security of the person concerned. It is
noteworthy that when quizzed on how they would prevent Aadhaar data base
from falling in wrong hands or enabling unscrupulous politicians to misuse
for their benefit and against the interest of the Indian people, Nandan
Nilakeni who eulogizes Aadhaar number as “ubiquitous” and even advised
people to “tattoo it somewhere,” lest they should forget it, was caught
napping.”
We submit that it is admitted that Governments of France and South Korea
and transnational companies like Gemalto, IBM, L-1 Identity Solutions,
Microsoft and Pfizer are part of the World Bank’s eTransform Initiative
(ETI).
We submit that what is least talked about is that the E-identity and
UID/aadhaar related projects are part of World Bank's eTransform
Initiativeformally launched on April 23, 2010 and Interpol's
e-identity database project. This along with the then Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee's announcement in January 2011 for voluntarily seeking
fullfledged Financial Sector Assessment Programme by IMF and the
WorldBank merits attention of the legislatures. In April, 2010 L-1
Identity Solutions Inc. (which has now been purchased by biometric technology
company Safran group), a French corporation signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the World Bank as part of the launch of the
initiative at a World Bank Spring Meeting event attended by many developing
country Ministers of Finance and Communications. It claimed that this
collaborative relationship with the World Bank is meant to improve the way
governments in developing countries deliver services to citizens as part of
the launch of the World Bank eTransform Initiative (ETI). The World Bank's
ETI seeks to leverage Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to
build a knowledge sharing network that helps governments of developing
nations to leverage the best practices of practitioners like L-1 and others
to improve the delivery of social and economic services. The knowledge
sharing network will focus on areas such as electronic Identification
(eID), e-Procurement, e-Health and e-Education; areas vital to promoting
the participation of citizens in democratic processes, such as voting, and
helping undocumented citizens get access to health and welfare programmes.
The World Bank is currently funding 14 projects related to e-government and
e-ID around the world. Are citizens supposed to believe that the World Bank
Group is working to ensure that India's national interest and its citizens'
rights are protected?
It must be noted that Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has
rejected the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 which was
meant to give legal status to Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) in its report to the Parliament dated December 13, 2011. The report
is available at 164.100.47.134/lsscommittee/Finance/42%20Report.pdf.
In November, 2012 a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice and Justice J
Chelameshwar issued notices to Ministry of Finance, Planning Commission and
the UIDAI on a PIL by a retired judge of Karnataka High Court K S
Puttaswamy who said the government was bypassing Parliament by going ahead
with the distribution of UID numbers. The PIL has relied on the letter
sent to Prime Minister by Justice Rama Jois, former Supreme Court judge and
member of Rajya Sabha questioning the legality of UIDAI.
We submit that a coalition of people who have become beneficiaries in the
possible profits from biometric database have taken media persons for a
ride. It may be noted that publications like The Statesman, Tehelka, The
Hindu, Hard News, Samayantar, Teesari Duniya, Frontline, Rediff.com,
Samkalin Tapman, Chauthi Duniya, Public Agenda, Prabhat Khabar and Pratham Pravakata under Shri Ram Bahadur Rai have attempted to expose this
coalition.
We submit that there has been instances where 3.57 crore signatures against
Aadhaar/UID were submitted to the Prime Minister referring to the
implementation of UID/Aadhaar as ‘subversion of democracy’.
In a significant development following rigorous deliberations, an Indian
development support organization founded in 1960, Indo-Global Social
Service Society (IGSSS) has disassociated itself from UID Number project
which was being undertaken under Mission Convergence in Delhi.
Withdrawal of IGSSS that works in 21 states of the country across four core
areas India: Sustainable Livelihood, Youth Development, Disaster Risk
Reduction, and Urban Poverty merits the attention of all the states and
civil society organisations especially those who are unwittingly involved
in the UID Number enrolment process.
In its withdrawal letter IGSSS said, “we will not be able to continue to do
UID enrolment, as we discussed in the meeting of 10th May 2011.” It added,
it is taking step because `it’s hosted under the rubric of UNDP’s *“Innovation
Support for Social Protection:** **Institutionalizing Conditional Cash
Transfers**“** [Award ID: 00049804, Project: 00061073; Confer: Output 1,
Target 1.2 (a) & Output 3 (a), (b)]*. In fact we had no clue of this until
recently when we searched the web and got this information.’
It is clear that both Mission Convergence and UIDAI have been hiding these
crucial facts with ulterior motives. The letter reads, “IGSSS like many
other leading civil society groups and individuals are opposed to
conditional cash transfers and the UID will be used to dictate it.”
We wish to inform you as to why all Freedom Loving Indians should oppose
UID/ Aadhaar, National Population Register (NPR), National Intelligence
Grid (NATGRID) and National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)?
They do so because:
It is a threat to privacy, civil liberties, federalism, national security,
sovereignty and constitution
It is without democratic, parliamentary, legal and constitutional sanction
It facilitates emergence of a Database, Surveillance State and Property
based Democracy
It is anti-poor and anti-citizen as it dismantles Public Distribution
System and other existing social service entitlements
It promotes outsourcing of governance
It is fraught with dangers of genocide and communal crisis
It is guided by undemocratic international financial institutions and
defence policies of other nuclear weapon holding countries
The collection of biometric data is an act violation of human rights and
turns citizens into subjects and treats them worse than prisoners.
There is an imminent danger from biometric technology companies
indiscriminately collecting biometric data like finger print, iris scan
It compromises citizens’ rights of present and future generations
It is a boondoggle, an unnecessary and wasteful project for citizens as it
transfers public money to private parties
Taking cognisance of the uncalled for linking of employees provident fund
with UID being opposed by the trade Unions, the report of Parliamentary
Standing Committee (PSC) on Finance that rejected the National
Identification Authority of India (NIDAI) Bill, 2010 for giving post dated
legal mandate to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI);
Recalling the Statement of Concern on Unique Identification (UID) Number/
Aadhaar Number project and its inter-linkages with the proposed
legislations and institutional machinery issued by 17 eminent citizens like
Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Prof Romila Thapar, Late K.G.Kannabiran, Kavita
Srivastava, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Late S.R.Sankaran, Deep Joshi, Prof.
Upendra Baxi, Prof. Uma Chakravarthi, Shohini Ghosh, Amar Kanwar, Bezwada Wilson, Trilochan Sastry, Prof. Jagdish Chhokar, Shabnam Hashmi and Justice A.P.Shah dated September 28, 2011 seeking halting of the project;
The Statement of Concern is available at
We wish to draw your attention towards the article by Shri Arun Jaitley,
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha made available in Urdu, Gujarati, Hindi
and English that raises grave concerns about UID/aadhaar. The article is
at:
We wish to draw your attention towards 'Why the UID project poses a danger
to our sovereignty' available at
*
*We wish to submit that 'Legislatures fail to save citizens from their
biometric profiling by World Bank Group and its partners' (
*)
*
We wish to draw your attention criticism of DJA, IPCI असंवैधानिक और
अलोकतांत्रिक आधार कार्ड बनवाने के लिए शिविर लगातीं कूपमंडूक पत्रकार
यूनियनें at* *
** *
We wish to share how biometric UID/Aadhaar entails "नागरिक की निजता पर सबसे
बड़ा डाका"
*
*Kindly find attached the notification appointing NN, Chairman, Infosys Ltd
as Chairman UIDAI, the RTI reply refusing information about UID enrolment
of Prime Minister, cabinet ministers and others, RTI reply denying
information about the contracts given to foreign companies that work with
intelligence agencies of France and USA and World Bank Policy paper 'Use of
biometric technology in developing countries'. Central Information
Commission is seized with the issue of denial of information and had heard
the matter on June 24, 2013.
*
*We demand immediate audit of the activities of the UID Authority of India
since January 2009 till date;
We recommend to all the State governments, government departments and
voluntary organisations to boycott the UID related projects with immediate
effect.
We will be happy to share all the relevant documents in this regard. The
report of the Parliamentary Committee is attached and other relevant
documents in English and Hindi attached for your perusal and consideration.
We demand that enrolment shivir of illegitimate, illegal and questionable
scheme like biometric UID/Aadhaar number for media persons in public
interest.
thanks & regards
Gopal Krishna
Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL)
Mb: 09818089660
E-mail:gopalkrishna1715@gmail.com
Cc
Office bearers and members of Indian Journalists Union (IJU)
Office bearers and members of Indian Medical association (IMA)
Office bearers and members of NUJ
Office bearers and members of DJA
2013/8/2 Palash Biswas <palashbiswaskl@gmail.com>
दिल्ली के मीडियाकर्मियों के लिए आधार कार्ड और वोटर कार्ड बनवाने हेतु शिविर[
Created on Friday, 02 August 2013 17:18 Written by B4M
दिल्ली जर्नलिस्ट्स एसोसिएशन (डीजेए) और इंद्रप्रस्थ प्रेस क्लब आफ इंडिया
(आईपीसी) इंडियन मेडिकल एसोसिएशन (आईएमए) के सहयोग से 4 और 5 अगस्त, 2013
(रविवार और सोमवार) को मीडियाकर्मियों के लिए आधार कार्ड और मतदाता पहचान पत्र
बनाने हेतु एक शिविर का आयोजन कर रहा है. यह शिविर आइटीओ स्थित इंडियन मेडिकल
एसोसिएशन के मुख्यालय में दोनों दिन सुबह दस बजे से शाम पांच बजे तक लगाया
जाएगा.
