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

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

12489 - SPEAKING OF AADHAAR - Bangalore Mirror

SPEAKING OF AADHAAR

Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Updated: Dec 11, 2017, 01.00 AM IST

By JOSHUA MUYIWA

You want to be glared down into dust by a liberal in Bengaluru? Tell them you’ve got an Aadhaar card. You’d be getting a good thrashing if this person subscribed to right-wing values, though their present political position doesn’t allow for this resorting to violence business, so count your lucky stars. Before, just being present in a space, expressing my sexuality or the mundane manual mechanics of tying my hair-bun were enough to split any room into those on my side and those against me. Lately, in a stage whisper, I say: I’ve got an Aadhaar card. I drop this bomb, power on my force field and watch the entire room implode.

In my usual dragging-my-feet-to-do-anything-official style, I might not have even gotten this card too. It took my grandfather putting his blood, sweat and every iota of patience dealing with the Foreigners Registration Office and finally the Home Ministry to ensure that I swapped out one problematic passport for the otherness that came with this one. He didn’t have any illusions that procuring this paperwork would help me pass, but he didn’t want to make me do the rounds of these bureaucratic swamps far into my adulthood. For this sacrifice of his, I will be eternally grateful. Even in the case of getting this latest laminated leaflet, my grandparents and uncle had to make it happen; I just happened to be born in their strong stream and got swept along.

Honestly, I might never have done anything about it while still living in perpetual paranoia of not having official documents. Someone like me, who doesn’t pass for an Indian in this country, has had to constantly prove my nationality and having official documents has always come to my aid. I’m the one carrying my passport even on short road-trips because I don’t want to inconvenience my travel companions. Though, full disclosure, it has been expired for a while now and it might take the patient, persistent push achieved only by family and familiars to get it renewed. Meanwhile, they’ve made sure I’ve got my Aadhaar card to carry around (ironically) brandishing it around like the police on a television show.

In my philosophy, my affiliations lie with the liberal on this front: the project of the Aadhaar card doesn’t hold any sound reasoning. The misinformation around the Aadhaar doesn’t help calm fears as well: with every service provider and its uncle deciding that it is mandatory, though it was made clear by the Supreme Court that this wouldn’t be the case. As citizens, we are entitled to understanding the parameters of the place that will hold all of the biometric information of the entire nation, the security measures that will be implemented to ensure that they will not be plundered and misused by a third party.

Also, how long will the biometric information of an individual be kept on file? Does it get destroyed on their demise or does it outlive them? Why does a citizen have to allow a democratically-elected government limitless access into their phone records, bank accounts and other transactional relationships? What sanctions have been put in place to make sure the government-in-power – present or in the future – doesn’t misuse this bank of information? In short, what does having the Aadhaar do for an ordinary citizen of this country that wasn’t already accessible via the other governmental systems? Why haven’t those been perfected instead of adding another obstacle to getting those fewer and fewer benefits?

In fact, in nearly-perfectly-run programmes like the dispensation of HIV antiretroviral and the far-from-perfect but hobbling programme like the distribution of pensions, it has thrown a spanner in the works. In the case of the first instance, it does away with anonymity, and in the second case, it disregards disability like in the case of Bangalore’s own Sajida Begum, an abandoned leprosy patient, who depends on her pension for sustenance.


Here again, forgive me, while I turncoat. Again, philosophically, I’m with the liberal front, we must question every compulsory programme implemented by a government. The trouble is that this stance seems to be motivated by some middle-class sense of privacy rather than a demand for accountability and transparency. So, I might kowtow to these persuasions against the Aadhaar at dinner parties and other social gatherings, but it might take some more risk, some more skin in the game by these players for me to come out onto the streets for this one. I’ll let you guys take on this monster. To swipe a quote from my Catholic upbringing in the city: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
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