AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10317 - National Population Register project now a Rs 4,800-crore sinkhole

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, August 28, 2016

10317 - National Population Register project now a Rs 4,800-crore sinkhole - Hindustan Times

National Population Register project now a Rs 4,800-crore sinkhole

Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Updated: Aug 08, 2016 01:05 IST

Rajasthani women show their Aadhaar cards while standing in a queue to vote in panchayat elections. The Centre says the population register should not expect the UIDAI to give it the biometric data of millions of people, collected for the purpose of obtaining the 12-digit Aadhaar number. (PTI file)

The National Population Register (NPR) is as good as dead, and the Rs 4,800 crore invested in the project might just go down the drain.

The Centre has made it clear that the home ministry-run population register should not expect the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to give it the biometric data of millions of people, collected for the purpose of obtaining the 12-digit Aadhaar number. Without it, the NPR database – once touted as a way to prevent Bangladeshi migrants from settling in – becomes a mere list of names with some demographic details of Indian residents thrown in.

The UIDAI – which collects photographs, iris scans and fingerprints from citizens – uses the biometric data to identify duplicates. It has generated 1.04 billion Aadhaar numbers, and plans to cover the country’s population by March 2017.

Last year, the home ministry had launched a door-to-door survey to collect Aadhaar numbers from people across the country, and pull out biometric data from the UIDAI database. However, the Aadhaar law passed last month barred the UIDAI from sharing the data – throwing a spanner in the works.

“The home ministry has the biometric details of only 280 million people – those who turned up at its camps over the last few years,” said a government official familiar with the project. “However, this will only go waste unless you have the complete database.”

Nearly Rs 4,800 crore of the Rs 6,600-crore approved project cost has already been spent.

The NPR project, inspired by a citizenship card project conceived by BJP patriarch LK Advani, was launched during former home minister P Chidambaram’s tenure in 2009-2010. The idea was to freeze the population register after giving people three chances to enrol. Anyone who came to get enrolled later would have to explain the delay.

Advani had hoped this would make it difficult for fresh immigrants to get into the register.

The progress of the two overlapping identity databases was stymied by a tug of war between the home ministry and the UIDAI, after both tried to independently procure biometric data.

Led by founder chairman Nandan Nilekani, the UIDAI hit the ground running – leaving the bureaucracy-driven NPR far behind.

NPR was also slow because it enrolled people in accordance with households, not just individuals.

A government official said it was ironical that the primary utility of the NPR database would lie in improving that of the UIDAI – a rival entity with which it once fought many bitter battles for survival.