AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12128 - India can never be corruption-mukt because politicians don’t want it so

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

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

12128 - India can never be corruption-mukt because politicians don’t want it so - Hindustan Times

India can never be corruption-mukt because politicians don’t want it so

COLUMNS Updated: Sep 24, 2017 00:38 Ist

Mark Tully

Earlier this week I spoke at the launch of a book on demonetisation by the economist Ram Gopal Agarwala. While Ram has criticised the implementation of demonetisation he sees merit in its outcome and has risked the wrath of most of his tribe who don’t by accusing them of “lack of understanding of the world of black money and the informal sector.” He was congratulated for having the courage of his convictions by another speaker, Ram Madhav, national general secretary of the BJP. I didn’t feel qualified to argue about the impact of demonetisation on the economy but I did stress the suffering it had inflicted on the small sector.

Ram sees demonetisation as a means to an end and the end is “a corruption-mukt bharat”. He discusses others measures that need to be taken to get there. I spoke at the launch because I agree strongly with Ram’s emphasis on the need to reform governance and his complaint that there has been very little progress on implementing the 10th Report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission. The report points out that the Indian Civil Service (ICS) on which the present system of administration is based was the instrument of imperial power. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to point out to Madhav the irony of a party, which lays such stress on nationalism governing the country as the British Raj had governed it. Madhav said the government was trying to undertake reforms but facing resistance from the bureaucracy.

The government is relying on digitalisation and computerisation to overcome the chronic inability of the administration at the local level to make payments honestly and deliver services effectively. But in his very optimistic book about India’s future Nandan Nilekani, the architect of Aadhaar has written: “When it comes to computerisation within the state we cannot build new systems over a creaky base – we have to first reinvent our state processes to increase our inefficiencies rather than merely computerising what already exists”.

Of course, computerisation can be a help particularly in curbing corruption at the delivery point and the Aadhaar card is a remarkable achievement. Computerisation can also make matters worse when it comes to administration by creating information overload and unnecessary communication which wastes time. Whatever their benefits computerisation, digitalisation are not magic wands to be waved over the seemingly intractable problem of India’s bad governance.

The fundamental administrative reform required, which no party has yet begun, is the reconstruction of all the institutions of governance to make them suitable for the needs of democratic India. They need the inner strength to play their role in maintaining the checks and balances between themselves and preserving their correct relationship with politicians.

Insulating civil servants from political interference is one of the key principles underlying the proposals of the Commission is and this is the main reason why all parties have shied away from reform. Politicians do not want to lose their compliant institutions. The collapse of the police in Panchkula when the followers of Gurmeet Ram Rahim rioted was the result of political interference in the functioning of a compliant police force. Commenting on that incident Julio Ribeiro, one of India’s most-respected retired police officers said: “Politicians of all parties and ideologies treat the bureaucracy and the police as their private fiefdoms that will bow to their wishes as and when demanded.”

But the blame for the institutional decay doesn’t end with politicians. The Commission’s report says responsibility for insuring the impartiality of the administration has also got to be shared by civil servants and they as Madhav said seem equally opposed to this.