AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 11969 - Love, demonetised

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, September 4, 2017

11969 - Love, demonetised - The Hindu

Love, demonetised

G. Sampath

SEPTEMBER 03, 2017 00:00 IST

Ask not what demonetisation has done for you; instead, ask your inner cow what your biometrics can do for the nation

Long, long ago, so long ago it seems like another lifetime altogether, I had a girlfriend I totally adored. She dated other boys too but I didn’t mind. She didn’t always take my calls. She carried on for weeks as if I didn’t exist. But she did accept all my presents, all my exam notes, and allowed me to pay all the bills when we went out. She was quite generous that way.

Devotion song

My only mission in life was to be her most devoted slave, her most preferred servant. I loved her so much I would have transported beef to Bareilly if she’d asked me to. I would have eaten the roach-enriched food served by Indian Railways and admitted myself in Gorakhpur’s BRD hospital, if she’d asked me to. Or stood in a queue for 72 hours without food, water or alcohol, even if she hadn’t asked me to.

Now, I am aware that I am not a Deepika Padukone or a Sonakshi Sinha that you would be interested in reading about my love life. But I owe this past life regression to last week’s big revelations.

Yes, I am referring to demonetisation. Everyone has asked me the same two questions: why is no one angry? And why was it done? It is clear now that not one of its purported aims was achieved. So where is the rage? Why are there no mass protests?

Is it possible, as my father keeps reminding me, that we are a nation of ‘double-filtered’ morons? Are we the only country in the world where all the people can be fooled all of the time? Are we sadomasochists, that we love gratuitous punishment? Or, as a colleague put it, are we ‘sodomasochists’?

Well, my friends asked me similar questions all those years ago when I gave this girlfriend my bike, my helmet, my raincoat, and two cinema tickets purchased on my measly pocket money. I did so without hesitation when she informed me at the last minute that she had changed her mind, and wished to watch this romantic blockbuster not with me but with a ‘cousin’ visiting from another city.

I told my chortling friends back then that they did not understand the nature of true love. I would say the same today to all those wondering why Indians aren’t enraged at being taken for a ride.

The people of India love their Prime Minister. They love him the way I loved this girl. This is not an ordinary love based on cost-benefit calculations. It is a divine, unconditional, proto-Vedic love. It is bhakti. That’s why people who surrender to such love are called ‘bhakts’.

If tomorrow, the Prime Minister were to come on TV at 8 p.m. and announce that from October 1, everyone must donate one finger to the government in order to make Digital India a reality, I assure you there will be serpentine queues of people dying to give him their finger.

So let’s get this straight. Demonetisation is not about the economy. It never was. Nor is it some ‘political masterstroke’, as some over-enthusiastic bhakts are claiming. At its core, the demonetisation exercise was nothing but that: an exercise. It was a drill like the ones conducted in military academies and shakhas every morning. The objective was the same: the perfection of obedience.

Essence of greatness

Any nation that seeks greatness needs two things: a great leader, and a population that can be trusted to blindly obey the great leader. We already have a great leader. But an obedient populace is still a work in progress, as not everyone has the aptitude to become a bhakt. Hence the need for drills such as demonetisation. Ideally, we should have something like demonetisation every six months, so that people get used to obeying quietly instead of asking 10,000 questions.

Some might say that this is akin to slavery, and they would be right. The world’s greatest civilisations — be it the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans, or the seven kingdoms of Westeros — were all built on slavery. That’s why Aadhaar is an absolute necessity, for the surveillance options it offers are the only way to transmute the rebellious elements in the population into reliable slaves. Actually, the term ‘slave’ doesn’t quite capture the nature of slavery that is unique to this land. The correct term is ‘cattle’.

Have you ever seen a cow protest? Or get angry? Or question the mysterious ways of its master? As you already know, to change the world, you must first change yourself. And to make India a great nation, all Indians must embrace their new unique identity as cattle.

So here’s my humble request to all my fellow Indians: ask not what demonetisation has done for you; instead, ask your inner cow what your biometrics can do for the nation.