AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5639 - Aadhaar may live as government forms panel to consider merger with NPR

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

Sunday, July 6, 2014

5639 - Aadhaar may live as government forms panel to consider merger with NPR - Live Mint

Aadhaar may live as government forms panel to consider merger with NPR

Govt’s move to try and merge the two comes even as it seeks to move ahead with a plan to identify Indian citizens via the NPR and issue citizenship cards Aman Malik

While Aadhaar gives a unique identity number to a person, thereby authenticating him, it does not confer citizenship. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint New Delhi:

The government on Thursday formed a panel of secretaries to look into the issue of merging the National Population Register (NPR) with Aadhaar, or the Unique Identification Number. Two senior government officials independently said the decision to form the panel—comprising home secretary Anil Goswami, Planning Commission secretary Sindhushree Khullar and information technology secretary Ram Sewak Sharma—was taken at the end of a presentation made by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli. Neither official wanted to be identified. Chandramouli made the presentation before home minister Rajnath Singh, law, telecom and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and junior minister for planning Rao Inderjit Singh. Besides Goswami and Khullar, Vijay S. Madan, director-general and mission director at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was also present. Sharma did not attend the meeting. While the panel has not been given any definitive terms of reference or a deadline, it has been asked to come up with a report “as soon as possible”, one of the two people said. At a press conference, the home minister confirmed that a meeting on the issue had indeed taken place, but did not share any details. The government’s move to try and merge the two comes even as it seeks to move ahead with a plan to identify Indian citizens via the NPR and issue citizenship cards in the next three years. While Aadhaar gives a unique identity number to a person, thereby authenticating him, it does not confer citizenship. Two other people with direct knowledge of the matter said the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (which deals with NPR and is a wing of the home ministry) wants to “take back” the job of enrolling people for Aadhaar from the UIDAI. Although initially both NPR and UIDAI were asked to share the enrolment equally, over time, the latter was mandated to enrol 940 million people. While UIDAI officials say they have enrolled 700 million people, home ministry officials put the figure at 630 million. One of the people cited above said that during Thursday’s presentation, the home ministry suggested UIDAI “should be brought under its control”, but both Rao Inderjit Singh and Prasad had reservations about the idea. Mint could not independently confirm this. Neither minister could be immediately reached for comment. Officials said while there was no clarity on which wing of the government would control UIDAI, the agency’s demand for an additional budgetary allocation of Rs.680 crore is likely to be approved by the government in the next few days. A 30 June report in The Indian Express newspaper said the government plans to link the citizenship card to the voter identification card, which enables an Indian citizen to exercise his franchise during elections to the Parliament, state legislatures and local bodies. Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, said the UIDAI under the home ministry “would be interested only in Indian citizens. Authentication functionality of Aadhaar number will no longer be important”.