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, February 17, 2014

5098 - Rice via Aadhaar fingerprints - Telegraph


SANTOSH K. KIRO


Chief minister Hemant Soren helps villager Lalku Mahli to authenticate his identity on the handheld biometric device at Ormanjhi in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Prashant Mitra


Ranchi, Jan. 22: Chief minister Hemant Soren today launched the much-awaited Aadhaar-linked public distribution system (PDS) from Ormanjhi block of Ranchi district in a bid to efficiently implement Food Security Act and curb large-scale graft that has become synonymous with subsidised foodgrain distribution.
Under the system, the biometric identity of each beneficiary will be authenticated at each PDS store, forcing dealers to give foodgrain to the actual person instead of fudging manual records and selling the commodity in the open market.
Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries are stored in a central database of food and civil supplies department, while each PDS shop will have a server and each dealer a handheld biometric device to authenticate the identify of the beneficiary by fingerprint-matching.
To help illiterate beneficiaries, the handheld device will have recorded messages in Hindi to guide them through the authentication process, telling them when to press their fingerprint, for instance.
But, another major loophole, that of PDS dealers distributing less grain by weight than what is mandated under central and state welfare schemes, won’t be addressed for now.
Unscrupulous dealers often cheat on weight, a fact that emerged most shockingly when Hazaribagh district resident Mosamat Geeta (40) and her Sangeeta (12) died of starvation last year and neighbours alleged they got around 20kg of grain from their ration store.
Major schemes include Antyodaya Anna Yojana where the poorest of the poor get 35kg rice or wheat at Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kilo and BPL scheme where the quantity of grain is same, but rates are Rs 7 per kilo of rice and Rs 6.50 per kilo of wheat. Then, there is Annapurna Yojana where senior citizens get 10kg of rice or wheat for free.
Jharkhand, however, subsidises Antyodaya and BPL schemes at Re 1 per kilo.
Each PDS or ration store is supposed to sell subsidised rice, wheat, sugar, salt and kerosene. But sugar is absent in Jharkhand’s PDS stores for months now.
“We get a lot of complaints that beneficiaries don’t get PDS allotments and middlemen are involved in irregularities. The new system will ensure that the genuine beneficiary gets his PDS allotments. We have launched the new system in Ormanjhi block and will slowly expand its ambit across the state,” Hemant said in his address.
But Hemant did not give a deadline about when the new system would cover the entire state, probably because large tracts don’t have electricity and computerisation poses a challenge.
“The new system will transform PDS into an efficient and transparent one. Now, the beneficiary can avail his grain allotment from any dealer across the state through Aadhaar. It gives him or her flexibility of choice,” chief secretary R.S. Sharma, the driving force behind the system, said.
It means that if a beneficiary suspects one dealer is fudging weights, he can now go to another.
“Around 91 per cent people in Jharkhand have Aadhaar numbers. So, implementation of Aadhaar-linked PDS won’t be difficult. If glitches crop up, the entire administration will be engaged to fix them. We will make the new system work and present a model for the country on efficient PDS through technology,” Sharma said.
Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay, state food and civil supplies minister Simon Marandi and his department secretary Pradeep Kumar, and Ranchi deputy commissioner Vinay Kumar Choubey were present at the event.
Chutupalu couple Lalku Mahli and his wife Sunita Devi became the first lot of Aadhaar-enabled PDS beneficiaries.
Hemant handed over 35 kg of rice to the couple after they went through their fingerprint validation via the handheld device of their dealer Ramesh Prasad Sahu.
Now, time will tell when Jharkhand’s 35 lakh BPL households entitled to subsidised foodgrain through PDS stores get what they owe from the state, not one gram less