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

5974 - Manekaji shouldn’t fret about matrimonial sites - Economic Times

Manekaji shouldn’t fret about matrimonial sites
November 10, 2014, 1:57 AM IST Economic Times in ET 
By Rajyasree Sen

It’s a tough world for single people. Especially for those looking to get married. You can put your profile on various matrimonial sites, but women are just so picky. According to a 2013 Economic Times report (goo.gl/wnSHS8), there were 35-40 million online registered profiles on matrimonial sites. And 2.2 million online profiles were being uploaded every month. Of these, only 10% were ending up finding spouses online. What wretched odds.

The men seem to be having it especially bad. Today, more and more women are earning and are financially independent, thereby taking away one of the main reasons for opting for an arranged marriage. According to India’s best-selling author in English, Indian women don’t even want to marry men who can’t speak English properly.

On top of all this, there’s women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi who has suggested that men who don’t provide their Aadhaar card details to online matrimonial sites be barred from creating profiles on these sites. So is she a champion of Nandan Nilekani’s wise ways? No. 

Manekaji knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. According to her, there’s been a rise in cases of men duping women through fake profiles and the Aadhaar card identification will ensure they don’t create fake profiles. “Our idea is to ensure that stalkers, serial daters and married men posing as single get filtered out,” said the honourable minister. Of course, women never indulge in any of these activities.

It’s a separate matter that the problem lies beyond creating a fake profile. Sanjeev Kumar, business head at SimplyMarry. com, says, “Posting incorrect information on age, religion or marital status are the most common problems in online marriage portals, as is lying about salary.” The Aadhaar card won’t stop the creativity of these men. On top of that, Aadhaar cards are known for getting information. Wrong.

Instead of their profile picture, people have found a picture of a tree, a chair and even a dog on their Aadhaar card. Also in March, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) couldn’t share biometric or other personal information with anyone without the cardholder’s permission. Would you want a matrimonial site to have full access to all these details, simply because you want to find yourself a bride? Since your marital status isn’t mentioned on the card, the UIDAI would have to provide that detail to the sites. A slight invasion of privacy there.

But then, if you’re on a matrimonial site, maybe privacy isn’t top priority. Also, if you don’t want women to end up carrying the burden of the Indian man, maybe a PAN card should be mandatory. At least that will give us women the hope that the marriageable man might be earning a living and paying his taxes — always a good perk in a mail-order husband.

While Manekaji’s concern for the welfare of women looking for a groom online is endearing, maybe she should let the women who have access to the internet and are educated, focus on finding their husbands themselves. If you’re on a matrimonial site, the least you can do is some due diligence before saying ‘I do’. Is this what we want our minister for women and child development to spend her time doing?

She could do with focusing on slightly more helpless and hapless women like those being married off as children. 

According to a Unicef report, six states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal — have the highest incidence of child marriage, ranging from 51.9% to 68.2%. “In these states, at least one in two currently married women in the age group 20-24 years happened to be a child bride,” states the report. Maybe she could focus on the introduction of new legislation on child marriage that would include provisions for compulsory registration of adult marriages, recording of child marriages and creation of ‘child marriage prevention officers’.

I’d say, let the able and educated women among us look out for ourselves. I think we are more than capable of doing so. And if not, we need to learn to be more capable. And really, do we want the government to interfere in this manner into our marital or romantic lives? Next, we’ll be told we have to have Aadhaar cards to sign in to Tinder. One more tension added to finding a good enough profile picture.

(For a counterview, read Yahoo’s ‘The ugly truth behind matrimony sites!’, at goo.gl/qA29Yu)


DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.
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