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, March 27, 2015

7585 - Issues in obtaining Aadhaar: From glitches to lack of forms - The Hindu

March 17, 2015
Updated: March 17, 2015 15:08 IST

Issues in obtaining Aadhaar: From glitches to lack of forms
  • DEEPA H. RAMAKRISHNAN
  • ALOYSIUS XAVIER LOPEZ

Over the past six months, almost everyone who has tried to get an Aadhaar card has had to run from pillar to post, only to return stumped by a process that is not working the way it is meant to.

“When I went to my gas agency to submit documents for the Pahal Scheme they asked me if I had an Aadhar card. Since I did not have one, I went to the nearby Chennai Corporation office where they turned me away saying they did not have application forms,” said K. Sigamani, an autorickshaw driver from K. K. Nagar.

In recent months, residents have been making a beeline to local body offices to get their Aadhaar cards and most of them have not progressed beyond getting forms or submitting them. “People who submitted their forms last month have been asked to come in May for biometric registration, which is a long wait. Also, unlike inside Corporation limits, residents of suburbs have fewer centres. For the whole of Avadi, the municipal office is the only place where we get forms and biometrics is done. I am 73 and cannot climb up the steps to reach the centre, which is on the first floor of the municipal office,” said Rajalakshmi Thirumalai, Pattabiram resident.

What does the scheme entail
1Hundreds of residents have reported failure of biometric screening for Aadhaar. Officials have rejected applications for Aadhaar from those whose biometric screening has failed.
2Biometric failure is when an applicant's data - finger prints and twoiris scans - matches with someone else's elsewhere in the country.
3 It is primarily caused by errors during capture, storage or poor quality of input.
4At least 5 per cent of residents are likely to have failed biometrics. Biometric data from many senior citizens may be rejected because of damage to iris or fingerprints.

Tiruvallur district
Biometric coverage - 75.82 %
Biometric data collected from 26.05 lakh residents
24.21 lakh residents have Aadhaar
Kancheepuram district
Biometric coverage - 74.23 %
Biometric data collected from 26.92 lakh residents
26.41 lakh residents have Aadhaar
Chennai district
Biometric coverage - 64.27 %
Biometric data collected from 27.94 lakh residents
24.46 lakh have Aadhaar
Areas under Chennai Metropolitan Area
Chennai district
Parts of Kancheepuram district
Parts of Tiruvallur district
Chennai
has the least amount of biometric coverage amongs the three districts of Chennai Metroplitan area

In some cases, the particulars provided by residents are missing. Chromepet resident V. Santhanam said details submitted in August 2013 are not to be found. A lot is falling between two stools, as the primary agency is the Directorate of Census Operations and the local agency, Chennai Corporation, he charged.

Residents have also not been able to get any response from the helpline since it does not work. At some biometric centres, the equipment does not work. “When I went to a centre in Anna Nagar they said the equipment was not working and told us they will inform us about the next date, but that never happened,” said G. Ahmed, a resident of Anna Nagar.

Sources in Chennai Corporation said it only provided logistics support in the form of manpower and space. “If we run out of application forms we ask the directorate, which supplies the forms. Our work is only to supply forms and send filled-in forms to the directorate. We have been receiving complaints that the staff behind the biometric counters are very indifferent and we have raised the issue with the directorate,” explained the source.


On the delay in processing data, sources in the directorate said that it takes time to crosscheck data from the entire nation. Following complaints from residents on non-availability of forms, the directorate will despatch 50,000 forms to NPR permanent enrolment centres in the city on Tuesday to facilitate biometric data collection for Aadhaar generation. Officials at the Directorate are yet to compile the number of biometric failures in the metropolitan area. Residents whose data is missing will have to submit it again. Similarly if the biometric data has failed residents have to get biometric screening again at the permanent Aadhaar centres.

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