AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8295 - Somersault in govt plea for Aadhaar

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

8295 - Somersault in govt plea for Aadhaar - Telegraph India

Somersault in govt plea for Aadhaar

- Centre fights in SC for scheme Modi had labelled a 'scam'

Our Bureau

New Delhi, July 16: The Centre today urged the Supreme Court to vacate its two-year-old stay on making Aadhaar cards mandatory for welfare benefits, praising the "tremendous success" of a programme Narendra Modi had trashed as a "scam" while in Opposition.

Moving an application in the apex court, the government pleaded that the court stay was hobbling various social-sector programmes, including the direct benefit transfer schemes.

It said that while beneficiaries' money was now being transferred on the basis of bank account numbers, the government was "unable to locate the fakes, ghosts and duplications in the system". This "can be easily done if Aadhaar numbers are provided".

It added that the Aadhaar "scheme has been a tremendous success" and should be extended to all welfare projects as well as other systems, such as the issuance of passports, PAN cards, train tickets and phone connections.

During the general election campaign, Modi had slammed the Aadhaar project and Nandan Nilekani, the man who had been handling it before quitting to contest as the Congress candidate against the BJP's Ananth Kumar from Bangalore South.

"They have a person who has Rs 1,000 crore but no aadhaar (a pun on the word, which means 'foundation' in Hindi). They made him a candidate," Modi was quoted by agencies as telling a Bangalore rally on April 9 last year.

"He must answer what has been done with the hundreds of crores of rupees meant to issue Aadhaar cards. In the end, the Supreme Court had to intervene (by imposing a stay)."

Modi had smelt a "scam" in the huge sums allotted to the project while BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi had alleged a "fraud" and said the BJP would review the scheme if voted to power.

The apex court had on September 23, 2013, restrained the government from making the cards mandatory for social welfare schemes until it had decided the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar programme.

Several public interest pleas, one of them moved by a former Karnataka High Court judge, have alleged that Aadhaar - introduced through an executive order on January 28, 2009 - violates citizens' fundamental right to privacy as provided under Article 21.

On March 16 this year, the apex court reiterated the stay. But the matter did not come up thereafter as Justice B.S. Chauhan, who headed the bench hearing the case, has retired.

At the last hearing, Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu had promised a new bench to hear the case. The matter is now listed for July 21, when the government's plea would be taken up.

Ironically, the government today said it wanted to use Aadhaar to check illegal immigration. But in March last year, Lekhi and Ananth had linked Aadhaar to "infiltration" from Bangladesh.

"This is a dangerous programme to regularise the illegal stay of migrants in the country," Lekhi was quoted as saying.

Ananth had said: "If you illegally enter other countries, you are shot at or put in jail. But if anyone enters India illegally, he is given citizenship. Aadhaar is the biggest fraud on the country."

Currently, the project is headed by V.S. Madan, director-general of the Unique Identification Authority of India who also holds additional charge as its chairperson.