AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5661 - Aadhaar to get a new life as Modi backs UIDAI

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, July 11, 2014

5661 - Aadhaar to get a new life as Modi backs UIDAI - Rediff

Aadhaar to get a new life as Modi backs UIDAI

July 07, 2014 14:41 IST

Sahil Makkar, Nitin Sethi & Surabhi Agarwal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday gave a vote of confidence to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is generating Aadhaar numbers for India's 1.2-billion strong population.

He sought the speedy roll-out of the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme, a flagship programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

This effectively ends a turf war, which had raised questions about the survival of the UIDAI project, and sets aside the committee of secretaries set up earlier this week to iron out differences between the home ministry, UIDAI and the informational technology ministry.

It is learnt the prime minister has asked officials to revive the National Identification Authority of India Bill, trashed by the standing committee on finance, headed by Yashwant Sinha in the UPA regime.

"Finance Minister Jaitley has been asked to handle the legal issues surrounding UID," said a senior government functionary, on condition of anonymity. Other government officials, too, confirmed the development.

Jaitley has also been tasked with dealing with ongoing Supreme Court cases on the matter. The apex court had stayed the UPA government's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of government social schemes.

At a meeting on Saturday, Modi directed DBT for liquefied petroleum gas cylinders, pension and scholarships should be expedited in the 300 districts in which more than 80 per cent of the district population had received Aadhaar numbers.

Among those present at the meeting were Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Planning & Statistics Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Secretary Anil Goswami and UIDAI director-general Vijay Madan.

At the meeting, the prime minister made it clear the Aadhaar programme was directly under his control, as he was also chairman of the Planning Commission, sources told Business Standard.

Sources said the decision had been taken keeping in mind the need to trim subsidies in the coming Budget.

Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had given a unilateral nod for the National Citizenship Register, on the basis of the National Population Register (NPR).

At the same time, contradicting the home minister, the UIDAI had sought the Cabinet's approval to use the funds allocated for operations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Under the UPA government, both NPR and UIDAI had been given the mandate to collect biometric details of Indian residents. According to law, only NPR is mandated to collect such data and UIDAI is to de-duplicate this and generate a 16-digit Aadhaar number.

The Modi-led NDA government has stamped the decision of the previous government and ruled out the merger of UIDAI with NPR.

The decision, however, hasn't gone down well with home ministry officials, who were hoping to take over the entire work of collecting biometrics.

"Our five-point agenda was to do the collection of entire biometrics ourselves, complete the NCR and ensure UIDAI only de-duplicates and give citizens a national identity card," said a senior official.

UIDAI officials said last week, they had already been directed by their parent ministry to ready the National Identification Authority of India Bill, to be reintroduced in Parliament. Currently, the Bill is in the Rajya Sabha.

"The Bill will have to be revised and resent for inter-ministerial consultation before it goes to the Cabinet," a government official told Business Standard. He added the Bill should be ready to be sent for consultation in the next two weeks. So far, UIDAI has given Aadhaar numbers to 640 million residents, with 177 million coming from the NPR.