AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5479 - Modi criticises Aadhar, yet implements it in Gujarat

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

Saturday, April 19, 2014

5479 - Modi criticises Aadhar, yet implements it in Gujarat - Hindustan Times

Modi criticises Aadhar, yet implements it in Gujarat

Saikat Datta and Mahesh Langa, Hindustan Times New Delhi/Gandhinagar, April 19, 2014

First Published: 00:08 IST(19/4/2014) | Last Updated: 16:53 IST(19/4/2014)

Narendra Modi may have criticised Aadhaar, but official documents show the Gujarat government has implemented the central programme efficiently, while collecting more personal data than required in some cases.

The Gujarat government also warned people of "penal action" if the data was not submitted, the documents said, adding chief minister Modi was appointed as the chairperson of the committee overseeing the implementation of Aadhaar.

These documents were made available to HT by Venkatesh Nayak, a Right to Information (RTI) activist and the programme coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. He accessed the documents from websites of various state departments and through RTI applications.

Besides, parliamentary data shows Gujarat registered 22 million Aadhaar card holders as on December 31, 2013.

Ashish Mathur’s Aadhaar letter has a tree photo. Agency Photo

Aadhaar is an ambitious project of the UPA government to provide a unique 12-digit identity number to the citizens. The SC had recently said Aadhaar card was not mandatory for any of the governmental schemes.

When asked, a top Gujarat official said the state had implemented the scheme efficiently, but refused to comment whether more information were collected than required. "We have collected details that were required for the project."

Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) prime ministerial nominee, had recently criticised the Aadhaar scheme at an election rally in Bangalore, stressing he had warned the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of its faults but was ignored.

He had added the UPA had "failed to convince the Supreme Court" and thus the scheme failed.

Nayak told HT that Modi's criticism was at variance with what his government did, but pointed out there were several problems with the Aadhaar project.

"I checked how much and how often the state government under Mr Modi had opposed the rollout of Aadhaar in Gujarat."

On the other hand, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman told HT that Aadhaar was being pushed by the Union government through an executive order and as the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi was expected to implement the programme in the state.

"But that does not mean he will not question it and underline what is wrong. If he had not implemented it in Gujarat, he would have been blamed for delaying it."

The documents said a resolution was passed by the Gujarat government's general administration department on March 23, 2010, to set up a council to implement Aadhaar. Modi was later appointed as its chairperson.

According to two resolutions passed by the general administration department on August 25, 2011, the state government had decided to seek "additional information about the residents".

These were PAN card numbers, election identity card details, ration cards, disability cards and details of LPG/PNG gas connections. The "non-inclusion" of these details, the resolutions said, "will lead to penal action".

The Aadhaar scheme only seeks proof of identity and address and collects the biometric data of the citizen.

"Aadhaar is… an attempt by the governments to collect more and more data about people without telling them how and who will use it. This is the grandest project in India of the surveillance state," Nayak said.

(With inputs from Moushumi Dasgupta)