AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8586 - Keya Sarkar: The cards we are dealt

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

Sunday, August 23, 2015

8586 - Keya Sarkar: The cards we are dealt - Business Standard

Keya Sarkar: The cards we are dealt

So when I got an email from my card issuer asking me to submit my KYC (know your customer) details afresh, I paid heed quickly

Keya Sarkar

August 21, 2015 Last Updated at 22:41 IST

It has been a relationship lasting over decades... with the bank that promised to never sleep. Although I had no traditional banking relationship with the them, my credit card was issued by this bank probably 20 years ago and I have had no cause to complain. In fact, compared to the horror stories I have heard of other credit card issuers, I have had none to relate. My bill comes on time, there are no sudden surprise charges, and their call centre workers are polite and efficient - much more than what one can expect of most service providers today.

So when I got an email from my card issuer asking me to submit my KYC (know your customer) details afresh, I paid heed quickly. But a few weeks after I had submitted my Aadhaar card as proof of identity and address, I received another email telling me that my KYC data could not be processed because my address as per the Aadhaar card was not the same as the address that the bank had.

A trifle perplexed, I decided to call the bank. I was told that although my address as per the bank records was 'Abakash', 34, Purbapally, Santiniketan 731235, the address as per the Aadhaar card did not mention "34". The voice at the other end helpfully suggested I use my voter card. I read out my address as per my voter card: "Gram-Purbapalli, Mouja-Bolpur, Visva Bharati Area, Bolpur, Birbhum". Not wanting to go into the intricacies of this one, she quickly suggested I use my passport as proof. At which point I had to tell her that some dyslexic in-putter of data had changed the pin code of my address on my passport from 731235 to 713235.

Not wanting to pull out more and more proofs of address - all the handiwork of different government machineries - I suggested that I send her all the address proofs that I had and the bank would be able to make out that 'Abakash', 34, Purbapalli was indeed the truth, albeit a trifle distorted by each agency. After all, I argued with her, the whole point of the KYC is to ensure that the bank is assured beyond reasonable doubt that the customer is bona fide and lives where she claims to. And surely KYC norms allow the bank some discretion in dealing with a customer of over two decades.

She asked politely if she could put me on hold. I agreed and settled into my chair to listen to music for a while. I imagined her taking this complicated case to a senior guy, who would immediately see the merit in my argument. But I was wrong. She came back on the line and repeated exactly what she had been telling me all along, that my address proof had to exactly match the bank records.

Exasperated, I thought that with the advent of the back-office call centre personnel, a banker's discretion is obviously a commodity at a premium. As the voice at the other end continued to talk, I started wondering which other bank I could get a card issued from, because this 'never sleeping one' would soon disown me as a customer.

I came back to the present conversation and heard the girl telling me not to worry because she had a solution. I was delighted. My banker for so many years would not let me down after all! Her solution was simple. Since documents could not be changed we could do the next best thing. Change the original address that I had submitted to the bank to exactly match a document. I did that with the security of my T-pin and everyone was happy.

Long live KYC.