AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5625 - Rajnath Singh sets a 3-yr deadline for NPR rollout, link to voter ID likely

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

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

5625 - Rajnath Singh sets a 3-yr deadline for NPR rollout, link to voter ID likely - Indian Express

Rajnath Singh sets a 3-yr deadline for NPR rollout, link to voter ID likely

Written by Vijaita Singh | New Delhi | June 30, 2014 9:39 am

SUMMARY

Government has called another meeting on Tuesday to tabulate the cost and manpower required to carry out the verification process.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. (Source: PTI)

Giving a thrust to the BJP’s poll promise of weeding out illegal immigrants from the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has set a three-year deadline for officials to identify Indian citizens in the country through the National Population Register (NPR) project. The government also wants officials to conduct door-to-door verification across the country and issue NPR cards only to Indian nationals.

The government is also planning to link NPR to voting rights, which means election identity cards would not be the sole document for eligibility to vote.

Singh convened a meeting of Registrar General of India on June 19 and asked them to expedite the NPR project. Officials who have been tasked with the job will be banking on digitised data collected during the 2011 census and will ask people to prove their nationality by producing any six categories of documents mentioned in the Citizenship Act, 1955.

An official said it was a massive exercise and the entire process would be done through the tehsil office, where the revenue officer will monitor the verification process in each district.

The NPR project was conceptualised in 2010 during the tenure of UPA-II but the officials had only been asked to collect data of residents. It was on several occasions at loggerheads with Unique Identification Authority’s (UIDAI) Aadhaar card as both projects had overlapping features like biometrics identification. But the new government has given the NPR project more prominence and larger powers that include the verification exercise.

“This time the government is very clear about the project and we have been asked to segregate the Indian nationals from the illegal immigrants who have been living in the country. Our people will go to each and every house covered under the census exercise in 2011 and ask for relevant documents to prove their nationality,” said a senior home ministry official.

“In some states, we have also collected the biometrics but where we haven’t we will begin the exercise soon. We have also been asked to take over the biometrics data available with the UIDAI, which was a welfare scheme aimed to reach benefits to the people,” the official said.

The government has called another meeting on Tuesday to tabulate the cost and manpower required to carry out the verification process.

For creation of NPR, the previous government had sanctioned Rs 6,649 crore, of which Rs 4,000 crore has already been spent.

“To achieve the next level, which is the door-to-door visit we haven’t tabulated the cost yet. As of now we do not know the manpower required for the project. The government has given us some time and we will be contacting them for funds with our estimated cost,” said the official.

The official said the date and place from where the verification drive would begin will be known during Tuesday’s meeting. “For now we have only been asked to identify the Indian nationals, what the second step of the government would be is not known yet,” he said.