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

Saturday, March 28, 2015

7674 - Look to India for prototype of a universal ID card The News Tribune

Look to India for prototype of a universal ID card
The News TribuneMarch 26, 2015 


An Indian girl in Kolkata gets her retina scanned as she enrolls for Aadhar, India’s unique identification project in May 2012. 

The giant identification project, which aims to give everyone an identity record and number for the first time, involves recording retina scans, fingerprints and photographs of all 1.2 billion Indians.
BIKAS DAS — The Associated Press

What if you had an ID card that, if lost or stolen, could not be replicated or used by anyone else because it’s linked to your personal biometric data – fingerprints and retinal scan?

That card would be completely private, with a unique identifying number. It would give easy access to any benefits the holder is due – think Social Security, veterans or food stamps – because they would go directly to a bank linked to the card. Where an ID is required to vote, the card would provide incontrovertible proof that the voter is eligible. It would corroborate that the holder is a citizen who could be hired for jobs requiring citizenship.

Impossible? Hardly. More than 770 million citizens of India already are using such a card – called Aadhaar there. Although signing up for the card is voluntary and originally targeted at India’s poorer citizens as a more efficient way of delivering public benefits, it’s proved so popular and useful that many in the middle class have signed up for it.

For the Rev. Andrew Young, whose foundation would like to see Washington state be a U.S. laboratory for such a card, the link to his efforts on behalf of the poor is clear. The card would make it easier and safer for low-income Americans who might not have a bank or even a home address to access their benefits.

That’s why liberals would like it, but Young thinks it’s something that conservatives would support because of its voluntary nature and the fact that it could help decrease benefits waste and fraud: Only the person entitled to the aid would have access to it. Consider how that would affect just the black market in SNAP (food stamp) benefits. A person couldn’t sell their benefits because they would be linked to a card that not only has the recipient’s photo on it but includes scannable biometric information.

An important component in India’s Aadhaar card, and would be absolutely necessary if a similar card were to be used here, is its confidentiality. Many people won’t sign up for it if they knew the police would have access to its biometric information. As in India, it would have to be administered by a completely separate and independent agency that would resist police requests for user information.

Young, who was in the state recently for the governor’s prayer breakfast, says Washington is the logical place to incubate the card in the U.S. because it’s a trend-setter and because companies in this state pioneered the technology used in India’s card. “Why not take the lead?” he asks.

As the world’s largest democracy, India may have something to teach this one when it comes to a workable universal ID card.

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