AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5064 - Home first

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

Monday, January 20, 2014

5064 - Home first - Indian Express

Home first

The Indian Express : Tue Jan 07 2014, 01:06 hrs

While Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily maintains that there was no proposal before the government to increase the number of subsidised LPG cylinders from the present nine a year to 12, Food Minister K V Thomas is learnt to have shot off a letter to Moily and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi arguing that the frequent enhancement of gas prices and the subsidy linkage with Aadhaar has created a lot of public discontent, especially in his home state of Kerala. He is learnt to have demanded increasing of the number of subsidised cylinders to 12 and stopping Aadhaar linkage for six months.

INTERIM MEASURES

Unable to finalise the name of a senior IPS officer for the post of special director and additional director, CBI director Ranjit Sinha has now distributed the work between special director Anil Kumar Sinha and additional director R K Dutta. Special director Sinha, a Bihar cadre officer, has been given the economic offence Mumbai zone besides sensitive unit of MDMA, special crime, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Kolkata zones. His deputy Dutta has retained economic offence at Delhi probing coal block cases and anti-corruption at headquarters which handles all big ticket corruption cases apart from Hyderabad and Chennai zones.

PLAN HURDLES

With the 12th Plan clearly ruling out setting up of any prominent education central educational institute like IITs, IIMs or Central Universities, there is very little scope for the Pallam Raju-led HRD Ministry to roll out the goodies ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. They are, however, making do with whatever is possible within financial constraints. It is learnt that as many as 54 Kendriya Vidyalayas will be doled out before the polls with one each in the Gandhi stronghold Amethi and another in Raju's constituency Kakinada among others. That apart, while the ministry has quite a list of pending Bills, it will also make special effort to try and push through the Bill in the Lok Sabha to set up a Women's University in Rae Bareli — Sonia Gandhi's constituency — when the House meets next.

THE MODI CONNECTION

Seated in the audience and listening to Narendra Modi with rapt attention at the 5th anniversary of Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth on Sunday was Gaurav Bakshi, a prominent face of Team Anna during the Lokpal movement who fell out with Kejriwal and has since moved on to acting — he featured in an episode of '24'. Little wonder that AAP's internal assessment shows many of its supporters actually want to see Modi as the prime minister. The seating arrangement at the do in Talkatora Stadium meanwhile was interesting with women herded into a single stand. Ramdev's earlier outings at Ramlila Maidan and Parliament Street were more inclusive.

DOUBTFUL CLAIM

While the West Bengal government is under fire from all quarters including the city's intellectuals for gangrape of a 16-year-old girl, a section of the Trinamool Congress has chanced upon an article in The Guardian, which lists Kolkata as one of the top five places to visit in 2014. A few TMC functionaries have shared the article on social networking websites including Twitter and Facebook. The unofficial internet space of the party, Maamatimanush.tv has tweeted it with a line from the article: "Change is stirring in the city". The first comment to the post, however, was unflattering, as is not uncommon on Twitter. It said, "Lawlessness, Unsafe neighbourhoods, goons — you are like SP now". The comment also tagged Derek O'Brien, the party's popular twitterati.