AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 7269 - Babus Resist Biometric Attendance Guerrilla Style

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, January 28, 2015

7269 - Babus Resist Biometric Attendance Guerrilla Style - New Indian Express

Babus Resist Biometric Attendance Guerrilla Style

By Pradip R Sagar

Published: 25th Jan 2015 06:00:00 AM

NEW DELHI:Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to set right India’s babudom are showing tell-tale signs of resistance. It appears the bureaucrats have declared a guerrilla warfare against Modi’s discipline drive.

In less than two months of the implementation of the PM’s pet project, biometric attendance systems (BAS), over 50 such machines, which were installed in various ministries to record entry and exit time of government officials, have been found damaged or even stolen under mysterious circumstances.

Annoyed with the attitude of the bureaucrats, the Director General, National Informatics Centre, who is a joint secretary rank officer in the Ministry of Communication and IT, Ajay Kumar, has written a note to all nodal officers and NIC coordinators expressing serious concern over the behaviour of the government employees.

“It has come to our notice that some biometric attendance terminals installed in your department have been damaged/vandalized,” Ajay Kumar said in a missive dated 16 January. He has also conveyed to the nodal officers that the devices are not covered under warranty of the equipment and therefore, asked officials to take steps to replace the damaged machines on priority and out of their own (ministry/departments) funds.

Kumar has also enclosed a detailed list of damaged and stolen biometric attendance systems at various ministries, including External Affairs. Petroleum, Human Resource Development, Sports, Health, Agriculture, Corporate Affairs, Mines etc. housed in various government complexes like Shastri Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, Sewa Bhawan, Lok Nayak Bhawan, Shram Shakti Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan and NIC headquarters.

Surprisingly, the NIC headquarters, which is the implementing agency of the BAS project as well as its headquarters and also houses its server, is reported to have maximum number of damaged attendance machines. Before installing BAS in a particular ministry, a team of NIC officials conducts workshops for the employees to inform them about the dos and donts of using the system.

The biometric attendance system (BAS) is part of “Digital India” programme and is currently implemented in the Central government offices located in Delhi. Gradually, the BAS will be expanded to all Central government employees across India and will be applicable to all ministries, departments, autonomous Central government bodies, institutions and Central public unit sectors as well.

The NIC has purchased biometric attendance system from a French firm Morpho (Safran), which is linked with the Aadhar card of the employees. The government expects 100% enrolment of employees and all employees present should mark attendance through the centralized biometric attendance system.

According to the dashboard of the attendance.gov.in, which displays real-time information on the attendance status in government offices on basis of the BAS, on Saturday, out of total 93,913 registered employee 7,124 was showing present from the 1,200 active devices from 427 various departments and ministries.

In the first phase of implementation, government has installed 1,000 wall mounted biometric attendance terminals, 5,000 finger print scanning devices and 200 IRIS devices across various government buildings. Because the attendance is now centralized, government employees will be able to mark their attendance in any of the buildings where biometric terminals and scanners are installed.

Red Tape Fights Back

Ministries where biometric devices have been damaged: Department of Agriculture, Ministry of External Affairs, CPWD, Mines, Petroleum, PIB, HRD,Culture, Sports, Department of Electronics and Information Technology