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 26, 2017

12549 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 24th Dec 2017



The Hindu
The government is looking to strengthen the Aadhaar infrastructure and would consider suggestions in that regard, according to finance minister Arun Jaitley. Speaking at the launch of a book -- Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12-Digit Revolution, by Shankkar Aiyar, visiting senior fellow, IDFC ...



NDTV
The debate over the Government's drive to make Aadhaar linking mandatory and the privacy issues associated with it sparked a debate between NR Narayana Murthy and former Finance Minister and lawyer-politician, P Chidambaram. While P Chidambaram spoke against the Modi government's ...






Times of India (blog)
It is called Aadhaar. It started off innocuously during the UPA regime but morphed into a monster from 2014. Today, it has two purposes — one, to enforce an all-encompassing surveillance state; two, to deny poor people of state-subsidized means of existence. It also threatens to block your investments, ...






The Tribune
The department is taking Aadhaar card number of every student, who is getting enrolled and the department has also been issued instructions to get the Aadhaar made of the out-of-school children so that department has all information related to these kids. In Ludhiana district, 1,575 out-of-school ...






Ibcworldnews
New Delhi: Shashi Arora, CEO and Managing Director of Airtel Payments Bank, has stepped down, the company announced on Friday – nearly a week after the Unique Identification Authority of India, (UIDAI) suspended its Aadhaar linked e-KYC services because of alleged misuse. “Shashi Arora has ...



Doordarshan
Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on Saturday released the book " Aadhar : biometric history of India's 12 digit revolution" written by Shankar Aiyar. Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that Government will always remain open for any further improvements to strengthen privacy ...






NewsBytes
Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy and former finance minister P Chidambaram had an argument at IIT-Bombay yesterday over linking Aadhaar to welfare schemes. While Chidambaram questioned the need to link Aadhaar to activities "that have nothing to do with the government", Murthy ...



Telangana Today
Hyderabad : 'Aadhaar', a noted word in every mouth in recent days. Though the Apex court has extended the deadline for the linkage of Aadhaar number with services like PAN, mobile, bank accounts and other services the people are facing a Herculean task. Recently, the Supreme Court extended the ...






Times Now
Mumbai: Have you wondered what will happen if any of basic details such as name, date of birth and gender are fed differently in both the identity numbers – PAN and Aadhaar? To ease the process, the authority managing the Aadhaar the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has shared a ...



The Sentinel
SHILLONG, Dec 23: The Meghalaya Peoples' Committee on Aadhaar (MPCA) today said that it will facilitate filing of affidavits for people of the State on a hearing in the Supreme Court against Aadhaar. In a statement issued here on Saturday, the MPCA said that persons can file affidavits if one has ...






Economic and Political Weekly
In this context, the HIV/AIDS Act, 2017, the implications of a data protection law for health, and the unconstitutionality of mandatorily requiring Aadhaar to obtain treatment for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are discussed. The author is grateful to Shankar Narayanan for his inputs. The almost academic nature ...






अमर उजाला
सरकार ने बैंक अकाउंट को आधार से लिंक करने की आखिरी तारीख 31 मार्च 2018 तय की है। इस तारीख तक लिंक नहीं कराने पर अकाउंट बंद हो जाएगा। लेकिन बड़ा सवाल यह है कि आधार लिंक कराने के बाद वह लिंक हुआ है या नहीं। इसे कैसे पता किया ...






The Telegraph
About 10 per cent of the books could not be distributed because they had been found surplus after Aadhaar linking. Abhiyan project director Surendranath Sankhua said these books were sent by the authority in advance based on the number of students at respective schools as notified by the block ...







अमर उजाला
क्या आप जानते है कि आपका 'आधार' ही आपको नुकसान पहुंचा सकता है। आधार को लेकर शायद ये बड़ी बात आप नहीं जानते होंगे, लेकिन यह ट्रिक आपको नुकसान से बचा सकती है। पढ़िए यह काम की बात.. AddThis Sharing Buttons. Share to Facebook Share to ...






Kasmir Monitor
Srinagar, Dec 23: Vigilance organisation Kashmir has arrested a SMC employee while accepting bribe in connection with preparation of Aadhaar. ... and accepting illegal gratification from one person namely, Mushtaq Mohammad Wani in connection with the preparation of Aadhaar Cards of his family.






The Hans India
"We have now observed that it is taking nearly 32-33 seconds to capture the photo and aadhaar details per pilgrim. But in future we want to reduce the time further by taking direct Aadhaar authentication as per the advice of our technical experts and negotiate the same with UID officers to issue SSD ...






अमर उजाला
अगर आप भी स्टेट बैंक ऑफ इंडिया(एसबीआई) के ग्राहक हैं और आधार कार्ड खाते से लिंक करना है तो ये तरीका अपनाएं, चुटकियों में काम हो जाएगा। Comments. Browse By Tags. aadhaar card bank account aadhaar card link sbi mobile app state bank of india More .






अमर उजाला
केंद्रीय वित्त मंत्री अरुण जेटली ने शनिवार को कहा कि सरकार किसी भी सुझाव पर विचार को तैयार है, जिससे आधार आधारित गोपनीयता ढांचे में सुधार हो सकता है। जेटली ने कहा कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट के फैसले से उम्म्मीद के मुताबिक ...






The Tribune
In response to a question, he maintained that there was no shortage of fertiliser in the state. “Some measures – like linking the distribution of fertiliser to Aadhaar – have been taken in order to check the misuse of subsidy,” he said, and added that 90,000 tonnes of fertiliser was available in the state and ...