AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9133 - Deletion of names from voters’ list turns intriguing

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, December 6, 2015

9133 - Deletion of names from voters’ list turns intriguing - The Hindu

HYDERABAD, December 4, 2015

Deletion of names from voters’ list turns intriguing

K. VENKATESHWARLU

The Hindu - Former Minister M. Sashidhar Reddy.

- File Photo: V. Raju

After the transfer of Hyderabad District Election Officer Somesh Kumar and causing anxious moments to the Chief Election Officer Bhanwar Lal, the issue of large-scale deletion of voters in the city is likely to embarrass the Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Former Minister M. Sashidhar Reddy, who took up the issue effectively with the Election Commission (EC) that led to an inquiry team being rushed to Hyderabad told The Hindu that he is determined to take it to the logical end. He said: “It was the Chief Minister who summoned the CEO to an official meeting at his camp office on July 21, where he fixed the target of deleting 15 lakh voters in the name of Aadhaar seeding or describing them bogus. I am going to pursue with the Election Commission to take action against him as he has violated rules that insulated officials deputed for election duties”.

Impact on politics

Mr. Reddy, also former vice-chairperson of National Disaster Management Authority, quoted Section 13CC of the Representation of People’s Act that specifies that “the Chief Electoral Officers and District Election Officers…. are deemed to be on deputation to the Election Commission for the period during which they are so employed and such officers and staff shall, during that period, be subject to the control, superintendence and discipline of the Election Commission”.

This being the case he wondered how Mr. Rao could summon and give directions to the CEO.

In his latest representation to the EC backed with documents and media reports including CDs, Mr. Reddy says Mr. Rao had insisted (at the meeting) on deletion of bogus voters en masse from electoral rolls as their continuance would impact State politics altogether. Twenty-four of the 119 Assembly constituencies were in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits and all these bogus voters were here. If Aadhaar seeding with Electors Photo Identity Cards was done properly, these voters could be removed from the list, Mr. Rao had emphasised.

Mr. Rao went on to remind the officials that voters should be 66 per cent of the overall population as per EC norms but in the case of 24 Assembly constituencies in GHMC area this percentage was more indicating presence of bogus votes. All this showed that the Chief Minister has transcended his powers and strayed into those of the EC, Mr. Reddy contends. Is he the official of the EC to review the progress of the seeding and the revision of electoral rolls?, he asked. The deletion of voters on such a massive scale was unprecedented and was done selectively with an intention to boost the prospects of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the coming GHMC elections, he alleged. Mr. Reddy said the meeting and what the Chief Minister said there was unwittingly confirmed by Mr. Bhanwar Lal in his interviews with TV channels. “The Chief Minister personally called me at exactly 2.22 p.m. on that day (July 21) saying Chief Secretary and GHMC commissioner are with him to discuss Aadhaar seeding with EPIC and that he wanted to know why the seeding was poor in Hyderabad while it was cent percent in Nizamabad and 80 to 90 per cent in other districts,” he told the interviewer.

Mr. Bhanwar Lal who did not respond to repeated calls from The Hindu, in his interviews to TV channels found nothing wrong in meeting the Chief Minister as it was during non-election time. He admits that after the Chief Minister’s instructions, Aadhaar linking was launched and continued till the Supreme Court stopped it.

“By the time SC judgment came nine lakh duplicate voters were identified when only 45 per cent of EPIC-Aadhaar seeding was complete. If the seeding was 100 percent it would have been possible to delete all duplicate voters,” the CEO said. It was a clear indication that the CEO would have reached the target of 15 lakhs given by the Chief Minister, Mr. Reddy argues. And since the Aadhaar seeding had to be stopped voters were deleted on a large scale, he claims. Citing precedents where action was initiated, Mr. Reddy said the EC directed the UP State government to suspend senior officers including the District Election Officer of Moradabad and others in the case of illegal deletion of 15,800 names of voters in Thakurdwara assembly constituency, a segment of Rampur LS constituency.