AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9230 - Government getting ready to convince Supreme Court about Aadhar Card

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

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

9230 - Government getting ready to convince Supreme Court about Aadhar Card - Economic Times

Government getting ready to convince Supreme Court about Aadhar Card

Aman Sharma, ET Bureau Dec 31, 2015, 04.00AM IST

NEW DELHI: The government is getting ready to convince the Supreme Court about Aadhaar card, seeking to preserve its status and putting the seal on a change of heart. Last year, the incoming Modi government hadn't seemed too enthusiastic about the unique identity programme, one of the UPA government's main achievements.

But it's emerged since as the engine driving the good governance agenda. More than 47 crore transactions involving delivery of government services have been carried out using Aadhaar this year.

The rise has been steady through 2015—to 7.9 crore transactions in November from 1.3 crore in January, according to a presentation made to the PMO and seen by ET. Since the inception of Aadhaar authentication services in 2010, more than 110 crore transactions have taken place.

Despite this and the level of enrolment— said to be close to 90% of the adult population— the Supreme Court is concerned that tying benefits to the unique ID may exclude the needy, besides the issue of privacy.

ET has learnt that the cabinet secretary will helm the drafting of a strategy along with senior government secretaries on extending Aadhaar to more government services.

Meanwhile, the government will seek to convince the Supreme Court about Aadhaar's utility. Aadhaar faces challenges on the privacy front with some critics concerned about access to the information of individuals.

In his Mann Ki Baat address recently, Modi said nearly Rs 40,000 crore had been transferred directly to the bank accounts, which was always one of Aadhaar's main aims— accurate targeting and zero leakage of welfare payments. It's been deployed to good effect in the rural jobs programme, another flagship UPA initiative. Out of 9.5 crore MGNREGS active workers, over 53% in 300 districts are now seeded with the ID and 2.84 crore payment transactions so far have been carried out using the Aadhaar payment bridge directly into accounts.

"There were a lot of complaints earlier regarding (rural job programme) payments," Modi said in his Mann Ki Baat on Sunday but these seem to have been resolved. He also said that about 15 crore people were now getting the LPG subsidy in their bank accounts, which the PM said was a world record.

According to information with ET, nearly 5.6 crore such transactions are completed every month using the Aadhaar platform— the rest are through the account-based transfer scheme— with 60% of 16.33 crore beneficiaries under the LPG Pahal scheme now seeded with the ID number.

The highest levels of government have also been informed that 66.3 crore transactions to transfer the LPG subsidy over the Aadhaar platform have been carried out till date. The online authentication platform is now capable of handling 10 crore transactions daily while Aadhaar saturation among the adult population has reached 90%, with the issue of 95 crore IDs.

ET VIEW

Aadhar of all benefits

The government needs to ensure that Aadhaar results in more efficient delivery of benefits to the intended users. If by linking all benefits, the government can demonstrate a perceptible reduction in leakages, corruption in the delivery system by reducing middlemen, and improvements by ensuring better accountability of all government benefits, that should be proof enough for the Supreme Court.