AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5668 - Home ministry seeks data on beneficiaries Ministry wants to match its National Population Register with the data of other departments Aman Malik

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

5668 - Home ministry seeks data on beneficiaries Ministry wants to match its National Population Register with the data of other departments Aman Malik

Home ministry seeks data on beneficiaries Ministry wants to match its National Population Register with the data of other departments Aman Malik

A file photo of home minister Rajnath Singh. Photo: Hindustan

Times New Delhi: The home ministry has sought data on beneficiaries of subsidies and various state-funded schemes from ministries that are managing the welfare programmes or disbursing the subsidies. Home secretary Anil Goswami wrote to his counterparts in the oil and gas, rural development, food and public distribution and minority affairs ministries, asking them to share the data, two senior government officials independently said. Neither official wanted to be identified since they are not authorized to speak to reporters.

The home ministry wants to match the data held by it as part of the National Population Register (NPR) with the database of these respective departments, the two officials cited above said.

The home ministry has made the request following a direction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, the officials said. “It is unclear why the home ministry wants this data, since disbursal of subsidies is not its function. Aadhaar is mandated to do that,” one of the two officials cited above said. While cooking gas, kerosene and diesel subsidies come under the purview of the oil and gas ministry, disbursement of funds from the Central government under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is spearheaded by the rural affairs ministry. Further, subsidies linked to the public distribution system are disbursed by the food and public distribution department. Mint first reported on Saturday that the government was unlikely to merge the Unique Identification Number or Aadhaar with the NPR and that it could bring back the Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for cooking gas and other subsidies, a decision taken at a meeting chaired by Modi earlier that day. Senior government officials had said that Saturday’s decision had overridden Thursday’s decision to form a panel of secretaries to look into the possibility of merging Aadhaar with the NPR. The home ministry’s latest move 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. “The scheme of NPR has been reviewed and it has been decided that NPR should be completed and taken to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of NRIC (National Register of Indian Citizens) by verification of citizenship status of every usual resident in the NPR. Relevant proposal will be prepared based on the decision of the government,” junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on 8 July. “We have to identify who is an Indian citizen and who is not. We have to take steps to identify genuine Indian citizens,” home minister Rajnath Singh separately told the Lok Sabha, Press Trust of India reported. “The NPR will be prepared in a time-bound manner. NPR will identify who is an Indian citizen and who is not. All genuine Indian citizens will get a national identity card,” the report quoted Singh as saying. There has been intense speculation in recent weeks over the role of the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), especially since the new government has decided to give a push to the NPR and the citizenship card.