AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5194 - Can Nandan Nilekani win Bangalore South for Congress?

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

Thursday, February 27, 2014

5194 - Can Nandan Nilekani win Bangalore South for Congress? - IBN Live

Can Nandan Nilekani win Bangalore South for Congress?

Nandan Nilekani, the man who is credited with giving an identity to 600 million Indians, is all set to take a plunge into mainstream politics by contesting from Bengaluru South constituency on a Congress ticket. The head of UIDAI and the co-founder of Infosys is working hard to understand the constituency and the voters in the last few weeks after it was informally agreed that he will be the candidate for the constituency and has the backing of none other than Rahul Gandhi, the vice president and campaign chief of Congress. So, what are his chances? Does he stand a chance of fighting against someone like BJP's Ananth Kumar, who is a five time MP from the same constituency?

Nandan has an impeccable list of personal achievements but will that get him through the maze of electoral politics is a big question on everyone's mind.

Here are some quick positives and negatives about his candidature:

Positives:

- A successful corporate career where he built Infosys along with the other founders and created wealth for lakhs of shareholders as well as for himself.

-In spite of a great career at hand, the fact that he retired from corporate life to come on board of UIDAI and deliver an Identity card to 600 million people in a span of less than a decade is worth noting. In spite of UID being mired in some issues, it is still an audacious and one of the world's largest ID project and is expected to solve some of the problems of identity, direct benefit transfer, subsidy reform and financial inclusion. With UID he showed what a man with great execution skills can do even in a snail's paced bureaucratic setup like ours.

- He has a clean image and considering the mood of electorate after Delhi elections, he can make his clean image as one of the key PR ingredient of his campaign.

- Ananth Kumar's victory margins are on a steady decline from election to election with 53 per cent vote share in 1998 that came down to 48.2 per cents in 2009 and if the relatively new Congress government at the state works in tandem for Nandan, he definitely stands a chance of fight.

Negatives:

- Right now he is a right man in the wrong party. Congress-led UPA is facing a strong anti-incumbency wave and most pre-poll surveys are predicting that Congress will have its worst elections ever in the history.

- Bengaluru South is traditionally a BJP strong hold where the sitting MP has won five times in a row starting from 1996 to 2009.

- There is a Modi factor at play in this constituency too. Nandan is relying his chances much on young urban Bengalurigas who are also appeased by Modi as well as AAP and may not fully swing in any one's way.

- Ananth Kumar has a strong connection with the constituency. He knows each and every corner of the constituency and is a grass root politician who goes door to door to campaign in the entire constituency. Nandan is yet to be seen mingling with people beyond those students of some reputed colleges of the city.

- Last but not the least, in a stratified society like ours, the ability to speak people's language makes a big difference for any politician and Ananth kumar who speaks fluent Kannada scores big when compared to Nandan. Nandan should engage the Kannada space more actively than he is currently doing. There are reports that he has engaged a Kannada tutor to brush up his oratory skills and we'll get to see the result of those classes when Nandan goes for campaigning door to door in the coming days.

Whoever may win, they should work with other MPs from the state to protect the economic and political interests of Karnataka at Delhi. This is what a median voter from Karnataka expects this season.