AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9600 - Narendra Modi praises Islam, adds fight against terror will continue

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, March 22, 2016

9600 - Narendra Modi praises Islam, adds fight against terror will continue - Live Mint

A team from Pakistan is set to arrive in India to probe the Pathankot attack

Meenal Thakur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Even as finance minister Arun Jaitley rejected Congress’s demand to cap the goods and services tax (GST) rate, more work remains to make the GST Bill a reality. In other news, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Islam for its message of peace and harmony but asserted that the fight against terrorism will continue, a team from Pakistan is set to arrive in India to probe the Pathankot attack.

In pursuit of good economics, BJP risks middle-class wrath

Good economics does not always make for good politics. The move in budget 2016 to impose levies on jewellery, while economically sound, has triggered a political backlash from the trading community, an important constituency of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party is in a spot as the government has rejected demands for a rollback. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in this year’s budget, proposed an excise duty of 1% without input tax credit and 12.5% with input tax credit on articles of jewellery except silver jewellery.

Modi praises Islam for its message of peace, harmony

Praising Islam for its message of peace and harmony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said none of Allah’s 99 names stand for violence and asserted the fight against terrorism is not a confrontation against any religion and the two should be de-linked. Addressing the first World Sufi Forum, he said, “This is an extraordinary event of great importance to the world, at a critical time for humanity. At a time when the dark shadow of violence is becoming longer, you are the noor, or the light of hope. When young laughter is silenced by guns on the streets, you are the voice that heals.”

Arun Jaitley rejects Congress demand to cap GST rate

A day after the government managed Parliamentary approval for Aadhaar bill, it moved to draw the battle lines in the next legislative fight on goods and services tax (GST). On Thursday, speaking at the India Today Conclave, finance minister Arun Jaitley rejected the Congress’s demand to cap the tax rate under GST in the Constitution amendment bill itself. He said it would be difficult to accede to Congress’s demand.

Read more

Pathankot: Pakistani investigation team to arrive on 27 March

A team from Pakistan will arrive in India on 27 March to probe the attack on India’s Pathankot airbase in January. The outcome of the probe will determine whether the two nations resume bilateral engagement. This was one of the main outcomes of the meeting between foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s national security adviser Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the 37th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Council of Ministers in Pokhara, Nepal.

Aadhaar will be backed by law, but there’s more to do

The Aadhaar bill is just a signature away from becoming a law, but the government still has much to do to shape its financial inclusion plans through the unique identification number. The Unique Identification Authority of India will be a statutory body with the power to issue regulations. These regulations cover several areas, the framework for which the Aadhaar bill provides. However, there are at least 20 other aspects on which regulations will be needed. Read more

Samajwadi Party to contest Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu polls

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has decided to contest in three of the four states going to polls in April and May, in a bid to expand its reach beyond Uttar Pradesh, where the party is currently in power. “The party has decided to contest in Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. While we will contest from 25-30 seats in Assam, the number will be around 20 in West Bengal. The final list of candidates will be released in a day or two,” said SP leader Kiranmoy Nanda, who is also in charge of these two states. The party has ruled out an alliance with the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) or the Left Front in these states.

The origins of Bharat Mata

There is much debate around the slogan Bharat Mata ki Jai! but the question is where and how did it originate? From various accounts, the origins of “Bharat Mata” can be traced back to a play by Bengali nationalist Kiran Chandra Bandyopadhyay that was first performed in 1873. Set during the famine of Bengal in 1770, it dramatizes the story of a housewife and later her husband who have to flee into the jungle and fall in with a group of rebels. A priest then takes them into a temple to show them Mother India. Read on to find more about the origins of the now controversial slogan.

Meenal Thakur