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, October 2, 2015

8790 - Rahul Jacob: Why is Aadhaar stuck? - Business Standard

A see-saw battle between the arms of the state has held up a win-win solution
Rahul Jacob  |  New Delhi 

September 30, 2015 Last Updated at 21:44 I

Speaking in Bengaluru a couple of months ago, Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya, both Silicon Valley returnees who worked on the Aadhaar project, were waxing hopeful about how Aadhaar having reached a critical mass, with the majority of the population enrolled, was set for takeoff. In addition to the more than 900 million enrolled, the cost of iris technology has dropped to a fraction of what it was when the project started.

 The two angel investors, who have a particular focus on social investing, said it was only a matter of time before more and more start-ups used the Aadhaar backbone to create services. "It's been structured for people to write applications on top of it from the get go. That's the only way you can unlock its potential," said Mr Acharya.

Mr Swamy was more effusive. "Aadhaar is not about catching the bad guy. It is about helping the good guy," he said, describing the "one and a half years of zero salary (working on the project) as the most enriching" of his career. To hear this discussion of a brave new world where medical records could be accessed through using an Aadhaar number, where the poor could be sure to get their pensions and next of kin benefits based on biometric identification and where digital lockers with digital university degrees could be created made one optimistic about better prospects for India's poor in the 21st century.

Less than a fortnight later, however, the Supreme Court issued an interim judgment limiting the use of Aadhaar only for the purposes of dealing with people seeking subsidies for fuel and foodgrain through the public food distribution system. Within weeks, entities ranging from the Election Commission to the ministry of rural development that oversees the rural income guarantee scheme were reportedly telling their officers to tread carefully in this minefield to avoid the risk of being in contempt of court. The most confusing lines from the judgment are these: "The Unique Identification Number or the Aadhaar card will not be used by the respondents for any purpose other than the PDS Scheme and in particular for the purpose of distribution of foodgrains, etc. and cooking fuel, such as kerosene."

If daily reminders of how far behind India is of most developing countries were not bad enough, one of the more depressing aspects of being a business and economics journalist in India is that understanding, let alone explaining, how different arms of the government come to such puzzling conclusions is so difficult. What is one to make, for example, of Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh citing studies that support "yogic farming" techniques whereby "every day farmers should give vibrations of peace, love and divinity to seeds"? This would be comic if the country was not tackling drought in many areas and a persistent crisis in agricultural productivity. Then there is Arvind Kejriwal who in the midst of a dengue epidemic is on the radio everyday to tell Delhi's citizens that he has instructed hospitals not to turn patients away and, for good measure, that he is fervently praying that none of our family members contract dengue? Wouldn't it be more useful to repeatedly remind everyone that wearing long-sleeved clothing and using insect repellent is a good way to combat the spread of dengue? How in a country where every other parent aspires that their children become doctors or engineers - Mr Kejriwal went to IIT Kharagpur - did we become so unscientific?

Most would agree with the court that Aadhaar need not be mandatory to open a bank account or avail of government benefits, though even there, with the more than 900 million already enrolled, this is a matter for debate. If we are not to use biometrics to plug the leakages that leave so many of our very poor effectively outside the country's inadequate social benefits systems, what is the alternative? Should the government be pressed not to issue permanent account number cards as these too could be misused?

Surely it would be better for the government to urgently put in place a privacy law than argue illogically that there is no right to privacy in India. Even in an inquisitive country in which everyone from employers to fellow travellers in a railway compartment believe it is their duty to enquire about your marital status and religion, privacy ought to be a fundamental right. Directing the government to publicise that Aadhaar is not mandatory is fine, along with advertising that when Aadhaar is used for authentication purposes, the system "knows that an authentication was done but not the purpose for which it was done," as Nandan Nilekani, the architect of Aadhaar, explained in The Indian Express a fortnight ago. In addition, when a "Know Your Customer" is done using Aadhaar, the information stays within the banking system. Ultimately, citizens and governments would vote with their feet if allowed to do so. Jharkhand is among the first states seeking a modification of the court order to monitor its welfare schemes, according to a report in The Economic Times. More are likely to join.

Last year, while on a visit to Bengaluru, I watched with amazement as the screen lit up with new accounts being opened by casual labourers at kirana stores across the country late into the night. I was in the offices of Novopay which uses micro ATMs at kirana stores and the Aadhaar backbone to rapidly increase financial inclusion. It has helped open 60,000 accounts thus far, which its head, Shrikant Nadhamuni, believes will multiply as more partner banks have joined the effort. Yesterday, I asked Mr Nadhamuni if this drive had been affected by the Supreme Court's interim judgment. His answer was that none of the partner banks had directed Novopay to make any changes to its modus operandi. Had any of the poor who had access to bank accounts expressed concerns about privacy? "None," he replied. "Their key problem is access to banking and remitting money to their families."