AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8284 - The warts in our democracy

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, July 25, 2015

8284 - The warts in our democracy - Live Mint

LAST MODIFIED: THU, JUL 16 2015. 01 29 PM IST

HOME» OPINION

The warts in our democracy

The government can monitor everything in digital India, but if you have nothing to hide, why not disclose?

Salil Tripathi

We will become the next superpower. If not in five years, then in 25 years. After all, you gave 60 years to those guys. It is our turn now. Photo: HT

First they went after police officers and bureaucrats who were saying things that didn’t match with the official version of the story, and none of us said anything, because government officials, after all, must follow service rules and not speak to the media. If they speak out of turn, of course the law must take its own course.

Then witnesses in the Asaram case started dying, but surely it was all a coincidence; India is after all a large country, and deaths happen.

Then witnesses and others involved with the Vyapam case started dying—one drowned, the mouth of one started foaming and he collapsed—but there was not much to be said because, you know, I didn’t live in Madhya Pradesh, so how was I to know what was really going on?

Then they released Maya Kodnani on bail, but you know, that’s understandable; she has health issues, and one should have compassion, and in any case that woman did no harm to me.

Then a prosecutor said she was told to go slow on cases against some Hindus who were accused of exploding bombs, and we shrugged it off because the prosecutor must have acted suspiciously—there must be something dark in the lentil (daal mein kuchh kala hai) because she must have been denied a promotion; and in any case Hindus are non-violent, so why should they be persecuted?

Then they banned beef in the state, and there was not much to be said, because, you know, red meat is bad for health in any case. You know, cholesterol.

Then they shouted ghar wapsi and we thought that’s how they described the Prime Minister returning from one of his trips overseas.

Then they stopped Priya Pillai from boarding a flight to London, but then what else was the government to do, come on, why did she have to go to a British parliamentary meeting to speak against India? How unpatriotic is that?

Then they froze the accounts of Greenpeace, but what was weird about that? Of course they should; after all, India has to develop, no? And doesn’t Greenpeace stop all development everywhere? Who funds them anyway?

Then they got Gajendra Chauhan, Mahabharata’s Yudhishthira, to run the Film and Television Institute of India, and the students protested; but that’s ridiculous, why should the government run subsidised schools for students to learn how to make films? And shouldn’t students spend time learning, rather than picketing and protesting?

Then they removed Amartya Sen from running a university, but of course that was the correct thing to do; after all, Sen was spending all his time at Harvard or Cambridge or wherever, and telling everyone he was against the prime minister. I mean, how could you be the chancellor of a top university and disrespect the prime minister? And why should people who lived abroad most of the time run India’s premier universities? What did Sen know about universities in India, anyway? Harvard?

Where is its academic freedom? They stopped Subramaniam Swamy from teaching—you call that academic freedom, huh?

Then they tried to arrest Teesta Setalvad, but wasn’t that the right thing to do? Why was she persisting with filing cases in courts even after the Supreme Court had given a clean chit? Who was paying her bills, anyway? And look, India is a democracy; the Supreme Court said she was not to be arrested, and she wasn’t, so what was the problem?

Then they raided Setalvad’s home, spending more than a dozen hours there, and some say they even went through her children’s room, but you know, you can’t take chances these days; how was anyone to know what she may have hidden and where? The Central Bureau of Investigation had a job to do, of collecting documents and information she had already offered to provide, so what was wrong if they came to collect it, and saved her postage money? Why is she complaining? She must have something to hide, for otherwise she would have disclosed everything, no?

Now isn’t that plain and simple paranoia? Such things happen in China and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, not in India, and excuse me, look, India is the world’s largest democracy. This is not some banana republic, you know?

We will become the next superpower. OK, if not the next, then next-to-next. If not in five years, then in 25 years. After all, you gave 60 years to those guys. It is our turn now.

We are good, law-abiding citizens. We pay our taxes. We have even taken selfies with our daughters. And we do yoga. Now have digital India. We have signed up for Aadhaar and memorised our number. Yes, yes, the government can monitor everything in digital India, but if you have nothing to hide, why not disclose?

Some day, these people in the media say, they will come for you and me.

If someone does come for me, you will speak up for me, no?

FIRST PUBLISHED: WED, JUL 15 2015. 09 48 AM IST