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

Sunday, July 17, 2016

10158 - Schoolchildren help Darjeeling police bust international sex racket - Hindustan Times

Schoolchildren help Darjeeling police bust international sex racket

  • Amitava Banerjee, Hindustan Times, Darjeeling |  Updated: Jun 19, 2016 13:38 IST
Most of the girls were trafficked from the hills of Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal. The racket was operational in the National Capital Region, particularly in Gurgaon and Mudrika area of Delhi. (Representational Image)

Intervention by schoolchildren helped uncover an international sex racket, leading to the arrest of the operation’s kingpin from Delhi along with a woman trafficker from Nepal.

Three traffickers were arrested at the West Bengal-Nepal border, and a police team from Darjeeling was rushed to Delhi to nab others involved in the racket. Members of Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG), an NGO, accompanied the police team.

Gagan Verma, the alleged kingpin, was arrested from his residence in DLF Phase 2, Gurgaon, by the Darjeeling police team along with Haryana police on Saturday. Verma allegedly forged government documents such as Aadhaar cards to traffic girls, and force them to dance in bars and into flesh trade.
Most of the girls were trafficked from the hills of Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal. The racket was operational in the National Capital Region, particularly in Gurgaon and Mudrika area of Delhi.

However, Verma’s aide, Sunni Tamang, managed to give police the slip and escaped to Nepal by road. MARG subsequently informed its partner NGO, Maiti Nepal, and Tamang was apprehended at the Nepal-West Bengal border at around 6pm on Saturday.

The Darjeeling police team comprised of two sub-inspectors, two women and two men constables. “We are bringing Verma to the Darjeeling district. He will be produced at the additional chief justice court in Siliguri,” said Deo Gazmer, officer-in-charge of Khoribari police station.

The operation to bring down the racketeers began after MARG received information from Maiti Nepal that a 15-year-old girl had gone missing from a remote village in the Sidhupalchowk district of Nepal.

The NGO has 12 Students Against Trafficking Clubs (SATC) running successfully in Darjeeling schools, under which students of Class 10, 11 and 12 are sensitised on the human trafficking issue.

“We had alerted our SATC regarding the missing girl. Four of our students from an SATC we run in a school located in the remote part of the district bordering Nepal managed to trace [the girl] on a social network site and befriended her,” said Nirnay John Chettri, president, MARG.

The students pretended to be residents of Nepal who were looking for jobs. The 15-year-old girl then introduced the SATC members to her “friend” in Delhi, who offered them jobs with a salary of Rs 15,000. They would have to work as bar dancers and entertain guests in Delhi.

When the SATC members raised concerns about being caught at the India-Nepal border, they were asked to e-mail their photographs and within 20 minutes they received fake Aadhaar cards along with their appointment letters.

“The students then laid a trap, stating that they would run away from their homes for Delhi. They requested the person in Delhi to send someone to meet them in Panitanki on the Indo-Nepal border, located in the plains of the Darjeeling district,” said Chettri.

At 1 pm on June 8, a man and a woman arrived at the rendezvous point in Panitanki, and were apprehended by police. The duo was identified as Ugen Tshering Bhutia, 43, of Jaldhaka in Kalimpong sub-division and Srijana Rai, 22, of Kumai in Darjeeling district.

“The whole evening, we continued chatting with the Delhi people from where we learnt that a girl from their group had boarded the Rajdhani Express to pick up our SATC girls from the New Jalpaiguri Railway Station (NJP) on June 9,” said Chettri.

A second trap was laid on June 9 at NJP, and Pranita Mukhia, 22, originally from Sipchu in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, was arrested.
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