AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5144 - Govt kills two reforms: raises LPG cap, snaps its Aadhaar link

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

Sunday, February 23, 2014

5144 - Govt kills two reforms: raises LPG cap, snaps its Aadhaar link - Indian xpress

Govt kills two reforms: raises LPG cap, snaps its Aadhaar link

Express News Service | New Delhi | January 31, 2014 1:37 am

THE CABINET Committee on Political Affairs Thursday granted Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s wish and raised the annual cap for subsidised cylinders to 12 from nine, undoing the reformist move to restrict LPG subsidy to deserving families with an eye on elections.

The decision ensures subsidised cylinders for 97 per cent of the consumers and will increase the subsidy burden by Rs 5,000 crore.

The ceiling of nine cylinders took care of the annual consumption of 89.2 per cent of the total 15-crore LPG consumers and only the rest had to buy additional cylinders at market price.

Although the CCPA, prodded by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, agreed to restrict supplies to one cylinder per month to each consumer, sources said this constraint would also be removed as Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily later told the Prime Minister that the restriction would amount to rationing.

However, in a setback to a scheme Rahul had touted as a “game changer”, the government put on hold direct transfer of LPG subsidy to the consumer’s Aadhaar-linked bank account. The issue will now be evaluated by a committee.

This decision was taken following arguments by Defence Minister A K Antony that field trials had shown that the scheme may not be working well as there were families that did not have an Aadhaar card or were unable to open a bank account.

Moily said the direct benefit transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme, where consumers in 289 districts in 18 states were to get cash in their bank accounts to buy cooking gas at market rates, had invited many consumer complaints.

Although the scheme presently transfers the subsidy to all Aadhaar card-holders, its aim was to eventually provide subsidy only to deserving consumers.

Expecting the objective to be followed through, an expert panel headed by Kirit Parikh had in October recommended that the cap on subsidised cylinders be reduced to six and the DBTL scheme be restricted to identified families based on an “exclusion criteria” within the next one year.

Moily said that following the CCPA decision, each household will get one extra cylinder in February and March and from the next fiscal year beginning April, they will be entitled to 12 cylinders.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari conceded that Rahul’s suggestion about raising the LPG cap had been heeded while taking the decision but it is “not linked to the polls”.

Neither is the decision to temporarily suspend the direct transfer of subsidy a fallout of the Aadhaar project landing in the Supreme Court, he added.

“Rahul Gandhi is a public representative. If he says something we take it very seriously. But the decision to hike the LPG cap or to temporarily suspend direct transfer of subsidy is not linked to the polls in any way. Neither is the decision to re-evaluate transfer of LPG subsidy any indication of the fate of the broader Aadhaar-based DBT paradigm,” Tewari said.