AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5969 - Narendra Modi's decision on Aadhaar poses big challenge for authorities

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, November 12, 2014

5969 - Narendra Modi's decision on Aadhaar poses big challenge for authorities - dna

Narendra Modi's decision on Aadhaar poses big challenge for authorities

Monday, 10 November 2014 - 7:10am IST | Agency: DNA

Mannan Kumar

Keeping an eye on the future assembly polls, especially Bihar and UP, and rationalise subsidy regime to improve fiscal health, prime minister Narendra Modi has not only adopted UPA government's Aadhaar platform fully but, to the dismay of many critics within the government, has advanced the date of collecting biometric details of the entire entitled population from September 2015 to March 2015.

Generation of Aadhaar numbers to nearly 110 crore residents will allow the central government to dole out cash transfers for schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme directly into the bank accounts of the targeted population, which can be a game changer for the BJP in assembly elections.

In Bihar, where for a population of over 10 crore, only 66 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been generated so far, assembly elections are due in November-December 2015. In Uttar Pradesh too, that will go to assembly polls in March-April, 2017, Aadhaar progress is dismal with only 2.08 crore out of the target population of 17 crores getting enrolled.

Despite employing former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani as head the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and steadily increasing his powers, the UPA government had managed to roll out only a small part of its entire direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme.

"The decision to advance the dates was taken by PM Modi himself in a meeting of all ministries concerned on October 14.

He advanced the date for entire biometric collection for both National Population Register (NPR) under Registrar General of India (RGI) and UIDAI to end March, 2015 from earlier date of end September, 2015 that the government had suggested on September 6 meeting this year," highly placed sources told dna.

The decision has left both the agencies – UIDAI and NPR – flummoxed as together they have to collect biometric details of 40 crore-plus residents in just five months. In many states like UP, even the initial work of tendering the works has not begun.

In comparison, it had taken them nearly four years to collect the biometric details of 70 crore residents, of which, data of 44 crore residents was collected by the UIDAI with several reported cases of wrong de-duplication alerting even the Intelligence Bureau and conduct a security audit. It had found that Aadhaar numbers were given to entities like Mango, Hanuman and long dead historical figures etc. Sources in the IB said, linking Aadhaar number with various services and allowing people to have things like SIM cards is not fool-proof and can have dangerous security implications.

"There have already been cases of people impersonating.

Moreover, using EKYC (Electronic-based Know Your Customer) to activate the SIM cards, without verifying it through other means, can allow anybody, including terrorists, to use mobile phones," said the IB.

Senior bureaucrats also conceded that the stiff deadline in all likelihood will be missed by the agencies or else it will come with a burden of huge flaws and snags that again will take enormous resources to correct and in the meantime have serious implications.