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, May 1, 2015

7866 - Par panel suggests dismantling Planning Ministry Says that NITI Aayog should be made an independent body - Business Standard


Par panel suggests dismantling Planning Ministry
Says that NITI Aayog should be made an independent body

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi  April 24, 2015 Last Updated at 19:42 ISTThe newly renamed NITI Aayog building in New Delhi on Friday


A Parliamentary panel has asked the government to make the recently-created NITI Aayog an independent body and dismantle the Ministry of Planning, saying it has no more any significant role to play.

"The committee would recommend that NITI Aayog should be made an independent body while dismantling the Ministry of Planning as such, which is now left without any significant function or mandate," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance said in its report tabled in both the Houses.

In another report, the panel expressed its reservations against earmarking Rs 20,000 crore in the Budget for the current fiscal for allocations to be made to states on the recommendations of NITI Aayog.

The panel said it was "at a loss as to understand the deployment and utilisation of such a large corpus, which will be disbursed on the recommendation the NITI Aayog that has replaced the Planning Commission."

It further said that if the newly-constituted NITI Aayog is to perform allocative function similar to the function attached to erstwhile Planning Commission, "it is not clear as to why the Planning Commission was dismantled in the first place."

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) was created by the government on January 1 with a Cabinet resolution to replace the erstwhile Planning Commission.

However, the Ministry of Planning continues to exist and is playing the role of an interface between NITI Aayog and the Parliament.

The panel has also recommended that the Aadhaar scheme presently under Ministry of Planning should be moved to the Ministry of Home Affairs for a better convergence of the UID and NPR schemes.

National Population Register (NPR) is a digital database of citizens which is being implemented by the Home Ministry.

In the present scenario, under the NPR project, the Home Ministry will issue the national multipurpose identification card to the entire population besides enrolling people and collecting their biometrics details.

The UIDAI is also enrolling and collecting biometrics data of the residents in 24 States/UTs. It would generate Aadhaar numbers for entire population using the NPR data also. Similarly the NPR will issue the identity cards bearing Aahaar numbers using data collected by it and UIDAI.

The panel observed that out of the total Plan expenditure of Rs 2,114.52 crore of the Ministry of Planning for the current fiscal, a major chunk of Rs 2,000 crore has been made available to UIDAI.

The committee also recommended that the National Rainfed Area Authority should be transferred to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation instead of shelving the project altogether.
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