AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 4640 - Centre’s directive on Aadhaar takes officials by surprise

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

Friday, September 27, 2013

4640 - Centre’s directive on Aadhaar takes officials by surprise - The Hindu

TODAY'S PAPER » NATIONAL » KARNATAKA

BANGALORE, September 22, 2013

Centre’s directive on Aadhaar takes officials by surprise

‘DBT scheme for LPG will start on December 1’

The Central government directive that the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme for LPG will start in Bangalore by December 1, has taken both the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the State government — the official registrar for Aadhaar in Karnataka — by surprise. Mainly because as of the end of this week 56.5 lakh citizens have been enrolled, accounting for less than 59 per cent of the total population in the city.

Of the people who have enrolled only about 80 per cent have received their Aadhaar numbers, officials concede. Given these numbers, the officials say that the DBT scheme is unlikely to take off on December 1.

Grace period

The government’s two-month “grace period”, before those without Aadhaar are denied the subsidy, is also a “very ambitious deadline”, officials say.

The UIDAI itself has set March 31, 2014, as the deadline for completing enrolments and issuing Aadhaar numbers for Bangalore Urban. “We are unlikely to finish Bangalore before March-end. Enrolments have picked pace but processing each entry, allotment of numbers and dispatching are processes that take time. It cannot be rushed through,” officials say.

After the enrolment process, one also has to factor in the extra time it takes to link bank accounts to the Aadhaar number and to get this data on to the oil companies’ data base.

A senior IOC official explained that customers needn’t worry as they can buy LPG cylinders at the subsidised price until February 28.

“Even in other cities, we have made announcements and found that people rose to the occasion and we were able to update the database and link Aadhaar numbers to bank accounts at a comfortable pace. We are doing this, obviously, with the help of the State government and the banks.”

Picking up pace

He added that DBT for LPG is at 100 per cent in Tumkur (where the grace period ended last month) and is picking up pace in Mysore where the deadline is October-end.

Extra rush

In fact, on Friday and Saturday, Aadhaar enrolment centres saw an “extra rush” following the government announcement. An official from the State e-governance department said that on Saturday, 15,000 to 20,000 people turned up in centres across the city.

“There is a huge rush. Every time there is another announcement linking Aadhaar to LPG or other subsidies, we see a spike in citizen interest.” On an average, around 10,000 to 15,000 enrolments are done in Bangalore per day, and over 60,000 across the State, according to statistics provided by the UIDAI officials.