AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 11909 - Human beings are not numbers or data: Activist Bezwada Wilson

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

Monday, August 28, 2017

11909 - Human beings are not numbers or data: Activist Bezwada Wilson - Economic Times

Human beings are not numbers or data: Activist Bezwada Wilson

BY RAJIV SINGH, ET BUREAU | AUG 27, 2017, 12.01 AM IST

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Aadhaar violated fundamental rights to privacy and equality, said Bezwada Wilson.

Bezwada Wilson, one of the petitioners who filed the PIL in 2012 challenging the Aadhaar scheme on the grounds that it violated fundamental rights to privacy and equality, is relaxed, less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court declared privacy a fundamental right. “I stand vindicated,” says the Magsaysay Award-winning activist and national convenor of the Safai Karamchari Andolan. The verdict, he says, will convey one message strongly: that human beings are not numbers or data.

Whatever Bhim Rao Ambedkar established in the Constitution has been reinstated by this judgment, he says. Excerpts from an interview with Rajiv Singh:

On what the verdict means to the people

For long, people have patiently listened to whatever the state has told them, and followed obediently whatever the governments asked them to do. This landmark verdict unequivocally changes the paradigm. It tells people that whatever the state has been telling them to do for so long is not always correct. This verdict gives a ray of hope that from now onwards India will get to see more citizen centric policies. This verdict also makes it very clear that privacy is an integral part of liberty, which happens to be one of the foundations of the Constitution of India. The emphatic judgment also rekindles hope that the practice of logical and rational questioning, which has been fast disappearing from society, will get a new lease of life.

On why Aadhaar loses its essence after this verdict

Aadhaar violated fundamental rights to privacy and equality. Why should I have Aadhaar? Human beings are not mere numbers or data. This strong judgment by the nine-member bench will hopefully make the government learn some lessons.

Though I can’t predict the future of Aadhaar, after this verdict it clearly loses its meaning. The government must drop this idea and shelve it. Government can’t go back to the court, arguing that it has spent loads of money on the project, and so it can’t shelve it. Who asked them, in the first place, to spend so much money on the project which never had constitutional validity?

On the impact of the judgment on the manual scavenging community

The manual scavenging community, like all citizens, has the fundamental right to privacy. Nobody should compel them to disclose their identity. It’s their right to stay private. If the government comes up with ‘reasonable restrictions’, citing that the fundamental right is not absolute, it will only expose its anti-people nature. I don’t think the government would try to do it, especially after this emphatic verdict.