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, June 6, 2014

5568 - Finance Ministry backs the Direct Benefits Transfer system sans Aadhaar - Economic Times

Finance Ministry backs the Direct Benefits Transfer system sans Aadhaar
By VIKAS DHOOT & RAJEEV JAYASWAL, ET Bureau | 6 Jun, 2014, 06.58AM IST

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/36117702.cmsutm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

NEW DELHI: The finance ministry has backed the Direct Benefits Transfer system as a superior method for targeting subsidies to the poor but said the Aadhaar platform is not the only route for such transfers, signalling a waning of enthusiasm for UPA's flagship project.

"It must be made explicitly clear that Direct Benefit Transfer scheme is operating in 27 schemes of the government and Aadhaar has not been made mandatory in any of them... Even without Aadhaar, the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme will be a superior scheme," the finance ministry's department of expenditure said in an office memo sent to the oil ministry on May 26. 

The memo was sent to incorporate the finance ministry's view in the report of a panel set up by UPA to review the DBT scheme for LPG cylinders. The report was submitted in late May.

By acknowledging that DBT schemes can go on without Aadhaar, the finance ministry appears to have reversed its earlier position on the critical nature of this ambitious programme, the brainchild of former InfosysBSE -1.26 % CEO Nandan Nilekani. 


Key to DBT lies in accuracy

The ministry under Pranab Mukherjee had allowed the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to expand its enrollment mandate from 10 crore residents to 20 crore residents without the Cabinet's nod. In September 2011, the finance ministry had also set up a task force under Nilekani, heading UIDAI at the time, on creating an Aadhaar-backed payment infrastructure for routing all subsidies to the poor.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/36117702.cmsutm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst


This task force report facilitated the UPA's push to expand UIDAI's biometric enrollment mandate further, first to 60 crore and later to 93 crore-odd people and drive banks to open Aadhaar-linked accounts across the country. 

Reservations expressed by banks about the efficacy of the scheme were also overruled by the UPA.

But the government, now run by the NDA, appears to have changed its view. "Aadhaar is not a must for this scheme to work," said a senior oil ministry official. "We are studying the report and may take a view after consulting all stakeholders, including consumers," he added.

The key to direct transfers lies in the system's accuracy and integrity. 

"The basis for identification could be anything other than Aadhaar but the DBT scheme will work only when you are able to identify genuine customers and have their bank accounts linked to get cash subsidy," said a member of the committee on cash transfers for LPG cylinders. If you read the report's fine print, its emphasis is on effective implementation and any alternative of Aadhaar should be welcomed."

The controversy over cash transfers for the LPG cylinder subsidy erupted earlier this year. The cabinet committee on political affairs had in January suspended the scheme and set up a committee to review the process. 

The committee has backed cash transfers in its report and concluded that the DBT scheme was successful in reducing diversion of cylinders and eliminating ghost/duplicate connections, thus helping with the key objective of reducing the Centre's subsidy burden. 

But it also red-flagged several difficulties faced by people in obtaining Aadhaar or UID numbers, linking this to bank accounts and LPG databases and getting grievances addressed. 


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