AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5653 - UIDAI on a roll as Aadhaar gets Modi govt's nod

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

5653 - UIDAI on a roll as Aadhaar gets Modi govt's nod - Governance Now

UIDAI on a roll as Aadhaar gets Modi govt's nod

Decision taken at high-level meet with PM, Rajnath, Jaitley and top officials; UIDAI set to continue to report to planning commission and, eventually, to PM

PRATAP VIKRAM SINGH | JULY 5 2014

PTI file photo

No more a question mark: Aadhaar gets Modi`s nod to stay on in UIDAI’s first presentation to the PM.

Going against speculation that he would do away with UPA’s ambitious UID project, prime minister Narendra Modi has decided to continue with the Aadhaar scheme and its usage in direct transfer of fuel subsidy and social security payments.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by the prime minister on Saturday, Governance Now has learnt.

Senior cabinet ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, minister of state for planning, statistics and programme implementation Rao Inderjit Singh, home and planning commission secretaries and mission director of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) were present at the meeting.

Governance Now had reported on July 3 that money has been allocated for UIDAI in the budget, to be presented on July 10, and that the Aadhaar scheme would continue to operate (read UPA's pet UIDAI set to get Rs 2,000 cr in Modi budget).

According to two senior government officials working with different ministries who are familiar with developments in today’s meeting, said UIDAI will continue to report to the planning commission and, eventually, to the prime minister. Of late, there have been reports, most of them quoting anonymous officials in the home ministry, that the national population register (NPR) will soon overtake the UIDAI database and also the enrollment.

Reports also indicated that UIDAI, at best, would be merged with NPR, if not scrapped altogether.

But one of the officials said that a merger was never being mulled between UIDAI, which completed its target of 60 crore enrolment before time, and NPR, which could not cover beyond 10 crore. “How can a highly efficient system be merged with an inefficient system,” he asked.

The two officials said that Modi, in today’s meeting, has agreed that UIDAI would enroll another 30 crore people in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. These states were supposed to be covered by the NPR but were given to UIDAI due to slower pace of enrollment.

Taking back the responsibility of enrollment in these four states from the authority was also among the demands made by the home ministry, according to some media reports.

Apparently, no UIDAI representative was called in inter-ministerial meetings after formation of the new government. This was UIDAI’s first presentation to the prime minister.

According to sources, there is also an agreement on introducing the pending national identification authority of India bill in parliament. The officials, however, are not clear whether it would be done in the budget session, beginning Monday.

The Congress-led UPA government had made Aadhaar mandatory for transfer of fuel subsidy to consumers, with intent to eliminate ghost LPG cylinder connections and control its diversion to open market. A UIDAI official said the countrywide DBTL (direct benefit transfer of LPG cylinder) rollout could lead to savings of Rs12,000 crore, if one were to extrapolate the figures for savings accrued in 100 districts where it was aggressively implemented early this year.

“No government will be foolish to scrap the most efficient model of distributing subsidy,” the UIDAI official said, referring to the possible gains of using Aadhaar in service delivery.

Earlier, Governance Now had reported that the government has approved a budget of Rs 2,000-crore for UIDAI for this financial year. Without giving out the exact figure earmarked for UIDAI in the budget, to be presented by Arun Jaitley on July 10, the official told Governance Now that “funds are not going to be an issue any longer”. He added that the Modi government has approved of all existing operations.