AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5550 - Aadhaar's future bleak as MHA is likely to revive NDA project

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

Friday, May 30, 2014

5550 - Aadhaar's future bleak as MHA is likely to revive NDA project

Aadhaar's future bleak as MHA is likely to revive NDA project

05/23/2014 | 08:31am US/Eastern

New Delhi: As Narendra Modi-led BJP government places itself firmly in power, a big question mark looms over the continuity of UPA's controversial Aadhaar project - the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

The Union home ministry that fought a bitter but losing battle against Nandan Nilekani's UIDAI under the UPA regime for collection and safe keep of biometric data of residents (citizens and non-citizens) is hoping to open up the closed subject again.

Top sources in the home ministry said they are planning to raise objections about the efficacy of Aadhaar scheme and to pitch their own multi-purpose national identity card (MPNIC) scheme based on national population register (NPR) to Narendra Modi. Incidentally, the NPR project was initiated by the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 on the recommendations of a Group of Ministers (GoM) that took the decision on the basis of Kargil Review Committee, appointed to look into flaws in the system in the wake of the Kargil War in 1999. The GoM called for giving all citizens MPNIC and issuing non-citizens identity cards of a different colour and design to check infiltration and ensure national security.

When Congress-led UPA government came to power in 2004 it carried forward the plans of the NDA government but enlarged the scope of MPNIC project to use it to check subsidy through targeted welfare schemes. This change from security-centric to welfare approach resulted in replacing MPNIC project with UIDAI. "The efficacy of Aadhaar project under UIDAI was always under question. Despite ministries and departments raising issues against Aadhaar, including prime concern of security and protection of the data, the UIDAI managed to wrest control not only on securing biometrics through independent registrars of its choice but also to keep the data," said sources.

According to the original mandate given to it, the UIDAI, set up by an executive order of the government and not through an Act, was supposed only to de-duplicate the biometrics data captured by the offices under the registrar general of India and generate a unique ID number against each name. But the mandate was later enlarged by Manmohan Singh who gave UIDAI the power to capture the data, store and it and link it with various targeted socio-economic government schemes by seeding with the bank accounts of individuals.

The UIDAI has so far spent a whopping Rs3,500 crore to enrol nearly 55 crore Indians but is still very far from doing the real work of de-duplication exercise, without which the unique ID number has no value and loses its purpose. But revamping Aadhaar could be a tough call for Modi, claim votaries of UIDAI. "After resisting Aadhaar initially in Gujarat, Modi used it for targeted delivery system. He may let it remain there and add some security features that have gone for a toss," a source said.

However, in home ministry's favour goes the 42nd report of standing committee of finance on national identification authority of India that was chaired by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and was entrusted to judge the UIDAI bill.

Coming heavily on UIDAI in its report submitted to the parliament in 2011, the standing committee had raised several question marks on the whole process, including dubious verification of information of individuals that can have far reaching consequences for national security.

"As the National Identity Cards to citizens of India are proposed to be issued on the basis of aadhaar numbers, the possibility of possession of aadhaar numbers by illegal residents through false affidavits / introducer system cannot be ruled out," it said.

Credit:Manan Kumar