AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9906 - ‘Aadhar’ for saving wasteful expenditure

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, May 3, 2016

9906 - ‘Aadhar’ for saving wasteful expenditure - Daily Excelsior

‘Aadhar’ for saving wasteful expenditure

Posted on 28/04/2016 by Dailyexcelsior

Dr Ashwani Mahajan

Recently Parliament has passed ‘Aadhar’ (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, as a money bill to facilitate its safe passage, as government lacks majority in Rajya Sabha and thus never wanted to face embarrassment, which it faced in case of Land Acquisition (Amendment) and GST Bill. Safe passage of ‘Aadhar’ (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill is being considered as a ‘game changer’ and a big success.

Politics on the Bill
‘Aadhar’ was given legal status by the previous UPA Government, as provision was made to give unique identity to all residents (including children) by assigning a 12 digit number on ‘Aadhar Card’. Then UPA government could not get the ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2010 passed due to intense opposition from Bhartiya Janta Party and other opposition parties. During Lok Sabha elections of 2014, Bhartiya Janta Party had opposed ‘Aadhar Card’. However, after coming to power the party thought that it is a good proposition, as with the help of Unique Identity (UID) of residents’ financial subsidies and other public services could be targeted more efficiently. This was also felt that the apprehensions expressed about the assault on privacy could be taken care of by making appropriate statutory provisions. Realizing that the Government lacks majority in the Rajya Sabha, it was decided to bring this bill as ‘money bill’, to avoid defeat in Rajya Sabha. However, we must also understand that though ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2010 and ‘Aadhar’ (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill 2016 are seemingly no different from each other, there are number of dissimilarities with the two.

2016 Bill and Privacy Concerns
According to ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2016, if a person has resided in the country for 182 days or more, he/she is entitled to get an ‘Aadhar Card’. According to this bill, a person is entitled to avail of a subsidy or a service from the government; he must either posses an ‘Aadhar Card’ or has applied for the same. These provisions were not there in ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2010. According to ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2016, information related to an Aadhaar number holder’s fingerprints and iris scan shall not be published or displayed publicly, except for purposes specified by regulations. When authenticating an individual’s identity, the UID authority cannot reveal information related to iris scan and fingerprints to the entity requesting for authentication. All these provisions were not there in ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2010. Therefore one can say that an attempt has been made to address the concerns about privacy in ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2016.

In order to grant legal status to ‘Aadhar’, ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2010 was unsuccessfully attempted by then UPA government. NDA under the leadership of BJP had opposed ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2010 on the plank that lot of private information are taken while making ‘Aadhar Card’ and if this data goes to other people, privacy is disturbed. Later on courts have also given their ruling against granting legal status to ‘Aadhar’ and make it an essential condition to take the benefits of government support.

Earlier, when the concept of ‘Aadhar Card’ was brought in and later on Indian Unique Identity Authority (UIDAI) was given statutory recognition there was no clarity about the usage of the same. For general public this was merely an easy way to get identity card. Easy availability of ‘Aadhar Card’ without there being any proof of citizenship, gave rise to apprehensions that this instrument may provide legitimacy to the foreign intruders (especially from Bangladesh).

Why is the New Aadhar Bill a Game Changer?
Once Rajiv Gandhi, our former Prime Minister, during his tenure, had said that 85 percent of the money sent to poor and general public, does not reach the intended beneficiaries and evaporates in the way. Experience so far reveals that the food subsidy, and petroleum subsidy given by the government does not fully reach the intended beneficiaries and there is a lot of leakage in between. Apart from this, in order to provide food security to the people, government has to maintain huge buffer stocks and providing the same to the intended population, government has to spend huge amount from its budget. According to erstwhile Planning Commission, to transfer a food subsidy to the intended beneficiaries of one rupee government has to spend Rs. 3.85. Similarly the benefits of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGREGP) do not fully reach the intended beneficiaries. Fertilizer subsidy given for chemical fertilizers goes to the companies and does not reach the farmers fully. A decade back it was impossible to even think of transferring the benefits from the government directly to the targeted beneficiaries.

Thanks to the techniques, today, it is possible to transfer the benefits of subsidy and other services directly the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, without much cost. For this, what we need is a bank account and a unique identity of the beneficiaries. Earlier, because of hic-ups in opening a bank account and requirement of minimum balance, a poor person was unable to open an hour account. However, under Jan-Dhan Yojna, nearly 18 crore new bank accounts have been opened with zero balance requirements. In fact, along with this, extremely low cost new insurance schemes, have also been launched, encouraging more people to open their bank accounts.

According to official figures, out of 127 crore population, more than 100 crore possess ‘Aadhar Card’. 93 percent of adult population today has ‘Aadhar Cards’. In 25.5 crore bank accounts,Aadhar number is registered. Persons, with less than 18 years of age can also get their ‘Aadhar Card’, however, very few of them have actually got their cards made. Therefore, it means that universal coverage of ‘Aadhar’ is possible in near future, especially after passage of ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2016. With almost universal coverage of back accounts of households and Aadhar card, now it has become easier to transfer benefits, directly to the targeted population. This scheme may save billions of rupee, as now LPG subsidy, food Subsidy, MNREGA wages and many other benefits can reach the targeted beneficiaries without leakage. According to the government, this could save 70 thousand crore to the exchequer. If this is correct, ‘Aadhar’ Bill 2016 will prove to be a big ‘Game Changer’ for the nation.

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