AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9412 - Modi government to give statutory backing to Aadhaar scheme

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

Monday, March 7, 2016

9412 - Modi government to give statutory backing to Aadhaar scheme - Hindustan Times

Modi government to give statutory backing to Aadhaar scheme

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Updated: Feb 29, 2016 17:32 IST

The government’s move to introduce a bill could help it overcome the legal challenges in linking Aadhaar to a host of government services. (HT File Photo)

The Modi government will give a statutory backing to Aadhaar, the unique identification scheme, and bill to this effect would be introduced in the ongoing budget session of Parliament, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday while presenting the Union Budget.

The Aadhaar scheme, part of the government’s JAM -- Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number – policy, is currently under challenge from civil rights groups in the Supreme Court. The lack of any legal backing is one of the grounds on which Aadhaar has faced criticism.

The Supreme Court has since restricted the use of Aadhaar, key to the government’s plan to shift to cash transfers, to the public distribution system and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

“First, we will introduce a bill for Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services by using the Aadhaar framework. The bill will be introduced in the current budget session of the Parliament. The Aadhaar number or authentication shall not, however, confer any right of citizenship or domicile,” Jaitley said.

A social security platform would also be developed using Aadhar to accurately target beneficiaries. “This will be a transformative piece of legislation which will benefit the poor and the vulnerable,” the finance minister said.

The government looks to expand the use of Aadhaar, Jaitley said. “Second, we have already introduced Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG. Based on this successful experience, we propose to introduce DBT on pilot basis for fertilizer in a few districts across the country, with a view to improving the quality of service delivery to farmers,” the finance minister said.

The government’s move to introduce a bill could help it overcome the legal challenges in linking Aadhaar to a host of government services. The Supreme Court has also asked a constitutional bench to look into whether Aadhaar, which is based on biometric markers, violates citizens’ right to privacy.

The Supreme Court bench will decide where the right to privacy is a fundamental right. Petitioners who have contested the Aadhaar project claim it violates right to privacy by collecting and sharing biometric data of citizens.

The overall aim is “the enactment of a law to ensure that all government benefits are conferred upon persons who deserve it, by giving a statutory backing to the Aadhaar platform”, Jaitley said.

Currently, over 98 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated. An average of 2.6 million biometric and over 150,000 lakh e-transactions are made under it.

The government has been able to connect Aadhaar numbers with 111.9 million direct-benefits-transfer accounts of a total 165 million beneficiaries. A National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 is already pending in the Rajya Sabha.