AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 4743 - Jayalalithaa raises pitch against DBT

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

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

4743 - Jayalalithaa raises pitch against DBT - The Hindu

CHENNAI, September 30, 2013

Jayalalithaa raises pitch against DBT - The Hindu

Put on hold DBT for cooking gas and go for complete rethink, says Jayalalithaa

Calling for a complete rethink on the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG scheme, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said linking cooking gas subsidy to the Aadhaar number without preparing the system adequately will only lead to confusion and inconvenience among the public.

Pending such a rethink, the second phase rollout of the scheme should be put on hold, she said on Sunday in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, details of which were released to the media on Monday. In this phase, the scheme is to be implemented in 235 districts, including 25 in Tamil Nadu, from January 1.

The Chief Minister, who voiced her objections to the scheme in April too, in her letter, also highlighted the need for the States to be consulted before launch of any ambitious scheme if the Centre’s intention is to ensure efficient delivery.

A letter from the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, earlier this month, giving details of the second-phase implementation came as a shock, she said. “The State government is strongly opposed to the proposed rollout,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said. LPG, an essential commodity, is to be made available to the users in a timely and need-based manner. Replacing the subsidy with a direct cash transfer is not appropriate, she added.

The Petroleum Ministry intends to link DBT of LPG subsidy with Aadhaar number of the cooking gas customers. “This is a proposal fraught with a number of practical difficulties. The pace of assigning Aadhaar numbers is as yet very slow in all States, including Tamil Nadu,” she said.

Confusion prevailing between Union Ministries besides the parallel schemes of the National Population Register (NPR) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in different States were reasons for the slow progress.

In Tamil Nadu, NPR-based registration was being implemented through the Census Commissionerate, a Central government agency. The work was proceeding quite slowly due to a number of difficulties with the agency and not with the State machinery. Even after NPR registration, there was considerable delay in the issue of the Aadhaar number due to co-ordination issues with the UIDAI. Aadhaar numbers have been issued only to 2.52 crore of the 6.74 crore eligible persons in Tamil Nadu, the Chief Minister said.

The DBT for LPG scheme may also not stand legal scrutiny in the backdrop of a recent Supreme Court judgment that said government cannot make Aadhaar mandatory for rendering any services. But, under the Ministry proposal after the grace period of three months no person who is not an Aadhaar enrollee can receive the LPG subsidy.

Pointing that direct cash transfer through banks was already adopted by the State for various schemes, she said the full rollout was not possible as the banks were not in a position to deliver the desired level of service at the doorstep of the beneficiaries.

According to Ms. Jayalalithaa, the Central allotment of kerosene to Tamil Nadu had been arbitrarily reduced by more than 50 per cent. If people were also deprived of access to LPG, many households, particularly those in rural and semi-urban areas, will look for alternatives like felling trees or use electricity accentuating the energy deficit.