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

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

9750 - Unique Idiotic Dilemma: Aadhar officer says woman without dupatta can't get ID photo clicked! - DNA


Unique Idiotic Dilemma: Aadhar officer says woman without dupatta can't get ID photo clicked!

 LATHA SRINIVASAN | Tue, 5 Apr 2016-03:10pm , dna webdesk

Despite the govt saying that there is no dress code, officers continue to insist that women wear a dupatta while getting their picture clicked.

The Aadhaar card has assumed such paramount importance in life in India today that I was finally forced to get one. On Tuesday morning, I went down to the Corporation office in Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai, at 10:00 am only to be told that the office which issues Aadhaar cards will open at 11 am. So I returned at around 11:30 am to the office and filled the form and waited my turn.

As soon as I sat on the chair for the photograph to be taken, I was told by the young government officer to wear a chiffon dupatta. He then handed me a dirty beige dupatta. I looked at him baffled and asked, “No one said it was mandatory to wear one. Why weren’t we informed?” He replied, “Madam, you can take the photo without the dupatta but if they reject the application in Hyderabad you should not blame us.” I then asked him where this rule was stated and he told me that those were the rules given to them. So I was forced to take the picture with one as I needed the Aadhaar card and I left the office at 12:30 pm.

The issue of the dupatta being mandatory for the Aadhaar card photo dates back to 2013 when women across India outraged about this. On May 31, 2013, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) clarified stating that it had not prescribed any dress code for Aadhaar number enrolment.
The govt clarified: “Residents are free to wear any kind of dress that they are comfortable with at the time of enrolment, provided it does not hide any part of the face (from forehead to chin). In fact, residents who wear a turban, burkha, or any such religious/traditional headgear are not required to remove them when being photographed as part of the Aadhaar enrolment process."

But the story on the ground is still different. In 2015, when my friend went to get her Aadhaar card in Hyderabad, she was asked to remove her hijab (head scarf) despite there being clear rules that head gear that doesn't cover the face is allowed. When she told the officer that she was wearing a hijab in her passport photo, he still asked her to remove it and stated it was not allowed.

This raises several questions – If not a mandatory dress code, was it not communicated to the corporation offices across the country? Or are the officers who were part of the enrolment process not aware of the official rules?

Since the UIDAI started issuing Aadhaar cards, the process has been dogged by controversies. The first, of course, was the dupatta issue. Last year, it was found that the UIDAI officers were issuing cards to dogs and other animals. While Lord Hanuman got a card in 2014, Tommy Singh (a dog) got one in 2015. Tommy Singh’s owner was subsequently arrested.
View image on Twitter

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Sreenivas Reddy Y ‎@iamYSfromTS
@KSriniReddy
Hopeless #UIDAI.
Gujarat Govt. issued a #Aadhaar to a Dog.
Tommy Singh, son of Sheru Singh
6:27 AM - 5 Jul 2015
But while dogs and gods can get their ids, it appears that a duptta-less woman can't get one in April, 2016! As a woman in contemporary Indian society, I find it demeaning to be told to wear a dupatta for an official photo, particularly one demanded by the Centre.
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Saurabh Bhavsar ‎@SaurabhBhavsa_r
Adhar card hanuman ji
9:17 AM - 14 Sep 2014
Is traditional Indian wear the epitome of respectability and decorum? Does it mean that Indian men are only capable of respecting women if they are dressed in salwars or sarees? If this is true then, women who wear salwars and sarees would never get raped or sexually harassed. So what are these so-called values we are perpetuating in society by asking women to dress appropriately? Irrespective of how a woman dresses, crimes against her are committed. And in the midst of all this, we have a government agency asking women to wear a dupatta for an identity card.

I don’t blame the officer who asked me to wear the dupatta for his ignorance, he is simply following orders. He is doing exactly what was conveyed to him. The fact that he told me, “Please don’t blame if they reject it in Hyderabad” shows that that the UIDAI officers in the data centre Hyderabad are obviously at the root of the problem.

All applications are sent to Hyderabad for processing from Chennai – and if the officer in Hyderabad can’t distinguish between a dog and a chair then we surely have incompetent people working on this scheme which governs everything from a passport application to a gas connection. As for the dupatta I had to wear, I wonder which incompetent officer sitting in Hyderabad rejected earlier applications for the corporation guy in Chennai to give me such outrageous advice.


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