AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8898 - Aadhaar not mandatory, but makes life easier for people

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, October 10, 2015

8898 - Aadhaar not mandatory, but makes life easier for people - TNN

Aadhaar not mandatory, but makes life easier for people

Mahendra Singh,TNN | Oct 9, 2015, 05.04 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Aadhaar number is not a mandatory ID and the government is willing to reiterate this commitment but inability to link the UID platform with a plethora of central and state welfare schemes will severely disadvantage a large chunk of 92 crore persons enrolled in the scheme who have no other reliable means of identification.

While the rules make it clear that Aadhaar is not mandatory for various services, requests will be processed much faster with a UID number as it provides definitive proof of identity through biometrics and eliminates duplication and fraud.

Usage of Aadhaar suggests that the initiative has gained momentum because of an individual's preference as it offers benefits either in terms of convenience, time, money, and/or transparency.

While many in urban areas may have alternative IDs, a very large number of Aadhaar enrolled persons, mainly poor and rural masses, have no other ID and will be hit hard if Aadhaar is ruled out as a link to welfare.

Aadhaar, considered a valid proof of address and identity across various domains including the government, has emerged as a key tool as UID offers a ubiquitous platform to authenticate anyone, anytime so long as there is internet connectivity.

As on date, around 92 crore people have been issued Aadhaar, which is much higher than 5.7 crore passports, over 17 crore PAN cards, over 60 crore election photo identity cards (EPIC), over 15 crore ration cards and over 17 crore driving licences.

Traditionally, people didn't have any nationally acceptable unique identity, and were forced to use proxy identities such as driving licence, PAN cards, EPIC, ration cards and passport among others to prove their identity and address. But the lack of easily verifiable identity led to exclusion of genuine beneficiaries, mainly poor and marginalized, while it resulted in inclusion of duplicates and fake entries in various beneficiary lists.

Aadhaar has also emerged as a key tool for preventing leaks. One such case is saving of around Rs 19,000 crore in the direct benefit transfer scheme. Over 2.50 crore payments (transactions) have taken place in schemes like MGNREGA, pensions and scholarships while over 70,000 appointments have been booked at leading hospitals in Delhi such as AIIMS by outstation people by using Aadhaar-linked KYC service.

Under Jan Dhan Yojana, over 18 crore households (representing over 70 crore people) opened bank accounts and over 7.6 crore people opted to give Aadhaar as the KYC document. These account holders started parking their savings and about Rs 32,000 crore is already deposited in these accounts.

Banks (including postal department) have worked to provide basic banking services through 87,000 online POS devices, which work online using mobile technology. Till recently, over 15 crore Aadhaar-based biometric transactions were done on these POS devices, showing that crores of people are using these facilities in rural India.

The trend of linking Aadhaar to bank accounts is not limited to Jan Dhan accounts alone, across India over 21 crore individuals have linked their accounts to their Aadhaar numbers.