AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 11864 - SC verdict on privacy: Modi embraced Aadhaar, a Congress brainchild, and it backfired

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

Friday, August 25, 2017

11864 - SC verdict on privacy: Modi embraced Aadhaar, a Congress brainchild, and it backfired - IB Times

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/sc-upholds-privacy-fundamental-right-modi-govt-left-red-faced-after-banking-congress-brainchild-739594

SC verdict on privacy: Modi embraced Aadhaar, a Congress brainchild, and it backfired

The Modi government has capitalised on a number of measures initiated by the previous UPA government but in the case of Aadhaar, it stretched it too far and faced an embarrassment. For a shrewd politician like Narendra Modi, this is quite unique.

Shubham Ghosh

August 24, 2017 13:54 IST

Fingerprints of an individual are being recorded for Aadhaar enrolment.Wikimedia Commons

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is generally a smart politician. Most or all of his steps generally find no match and deliver unquestionably well. But when it came to Aadhaar, Modi's government hit the wall on Thursday, August 24, when a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld privacy as a fundamental right. Although there was no verdict on the issue of linking Aadhaar, all quarters were convinced that the government would not be able to force its way much after the crucial verdict.

But why did Modi, a master politician, take the risk of extracting mileage out of Aadhar – a scheme which is a brainchild of the previous Congress-led UPA government and eventually bit the dust? Was it a folly committed by an overconfident mind?

Modi govt has mostly continued with previous govt's measures

One presumes so. The Modi government, although has slammed the former Manmohan Singh government on various occasions on issues like corruption, it also has continued with ideas that were conceived by the latter to score populist points. Be it the MGNREGA, Goods and Services Tax (GST) or Aadhaar, Modi gave them a more definite shape instead of scrapping them because he knew populism is an essential part and parcel of Indian politics.

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But in the over-excitement, the BJP leadership ignored the fact that making Aadhar compulsory is not as same as MGNREGA. The latter is a key populist weapon to bag votes from the rural India, where the BJP still has to make a lot of gains, and hence irrespective of the Congress's 'several years of failure' to force a marked improvement in the rural livelihood, Modi did not want to risk the electoral prospects in the rural areas by scrapping the MGNREGA straightaway. No political leadership could take that risk whatsoever.

Modi himself had once called Aadhaar "political gimmick"

But in the case of Aadhar which PM Modi himself had termed an "electoral gimmick" during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the scenario was completely different. The Aadhar scheme, a brainchild of former Infosys chief executive Nandan Nilekani, was never an earth-shattering project for Indians were already having several identification documents like PAN, voter identification card, passport, etc. Putting into use another redundant layer of identification never really seemed appealing.

Even former Union home minister P Chidambaram had once taken on Nilekani and deputy chairperson of the now defunct planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia over the controversy-ridden UIDAI project.

So, when Modi and his team took a shocking U-turn and banked on the same Aadhar and even asked to make it mandatory, a lot of questions started coming up.

Did Modi push Aadhar for digital India?

According to some, the Modi government pushed Aadhaar to promote its agenda of making India digital.

According to others, it was done in purpose so that vigilance could be kept on people's economic habits and accordingly, the income tax department can be used.

Whatever the actual reasons are, Modi made a grave blunder by trying to make Aadhar a game-changing tool when the fact is that its original creators weren't too excited about it. Aadhar is neither a populist tool and affects the elite and middle-classes that will not spare anybody trying to intrude into their private domains. Logically, there was a backlash and the judiciary was moved resulting in the Modi government's loss of face.