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

12552 - 'I disagree with you ... ': Narayana Murthy, Chidambaram spar over Aadhaar - TNN

'I disagree with you ... ': Narayana Murthy, Chidambaram spar over Aadhaar


PTI | Updated: Dec 22, 2017, 23:12 IST

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Record should not be accessed by a hacker or a big brother in the government using my Aadhaar. That's my objection: Chidambaram
  • Murthy said we should not "trash" Aadhaar and took jibes at Parliamentarians for not coming out with a privacy law that can help protect individual's data
MUMBAI: The controversy over Aadhaar on Friday triggered a heated spat between P Chidambaram and NR Narayana Murthy, with the lawyer-politician flagging concerns from a libertarian perspective and the Infosys co-founder stressing on the need for Parliament to enact laws to protect privacy. 

Flaying the Modi government's strident move to get everything linked to this national identification number, Chidamabaram said the "government is completely deaf" to any reasoning against linking Aadhaar to everything under the sun. 

Like any other modern country, there is a need to establish individual identities in the form of a driving licence, at the same time ensuring that there is no violation of privacy with such an identification, Murthy said, speaking at IIT-Bombay's annual Mood Indigo festival here this evening. 

Chidambaram on the other hand argued that using Aadhaar for every transaction has "serious consequences" that will turn the country into an "Orwellian state", compromising the ideals of a liberal democracy and an open society. 

"If a young man and a young woman want to have a private holiday, they may not be married, what's wrong with that? If a young man wants to buy condoms, why should he disclose his Aadhaar or identity?" the former finance minister quipped. 

"Why should the state, that is the government, know what medicines I buy, what cinemas I visit, what hotels I stay in, who are my friends?" he asked further. 

"If I am in the government, I should resist the temptation to know about all these activities which individual citizens do," he said. 

Retorting back, Murthy said, "I disagree with you ... all of the things you talked about are available through Google today." 

Chidambaram said he has not linked his bank account with the Aadhaar number and appealed for a pause on linking activities till January 17, when the a five-judge Constitution bench is slated to resume hearing the bunch of petitions on the matter. 

He further said right now, all the Aadhaar linking is being done not voluntarily by the people but as a tool to "conform" because of the barrage of SMSs and mails. 

"The question is: there are many agencies which say, 'give me your Aadhaar. And even crematorium is asking for Aadhaar today!," Chidambaram said, clarifying that he doesn't oppose Aadhaar as a means to establish identities and help extend government subsidies. 

When pointed out about the potential misuse of the individual data while availing of services by the chair of the panel, Murthy said we should not "trash" Aadhaar and took jibes at Parliamentarians for not coming out with a privacy law that can help protect an individual's data. 

In the wake of criticism of hiding wrongful transactions against those opposing Aadhaar, Chidambaram made it clear that there is nothing to hide and any investigative agencies can access details if needed. 

"... that record should not be accessed by a hacker or a big brother in the government using my Aadhaar. That's my objection," he said. 

The former two-time finance minister in the Manmohan Singh government, that brought in the Aadhaar, pointed out that the original idea of Aadhaar was to help transfer government benefits and subsidies and plug the leaks. 

"Where there are no government subsidies or benefit being transferred, there is absolutely no reason to link to Aadhaar. There are serious consequences of doing that. But this government seems to be completely deaf to any reasoning against linking Aadhaar to everything under the sun." 

Picking up quickly on it, Murthy shot back saying "that responsibility is of Parliament ... to ensure that the executive does not do it. You have all the powers." 

Murthy further said, "Aadhaar is nothing but a simple verification of the identity of an individual. There is no privacy issue here. We've a certain way of identifying individuals and it's like a driver's licence in which there is no privacy violated by that."

To this, the former home minister retorted saying Murthy is "disarmingly innocent", and private people do listen-in to calls.

The two finally did agree, with Murthy saying, "as long as there are laws that protect privacy, there is no issue. I'm not saying you need an Aadhaar to book a film ticket, or some other trivia."

This led Chidambaram to say "in the revised formulation, I entirely agree with Mr Murthy".

"The beauty of disagreeing with Mr Chidambaram is that you can disagree with him as long as you are not disagreeable," Murthy concluded. 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/p-chidambaram-nr-narayana-murthy-spar-over-aadhaar/articleshow/62214211.cms

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/chidambaram-flays-aadhaar-narayana-murthy-iit-bombay-fest/1/1116324.html

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/p-chidambaram-narayana-murthy-spar-over-aadhaar-4995205/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/murthy-and-chidambaram-spar-over-aadhaar-linking/articleshow/62215930.cms

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/iclxrcfttuqoXwVUh9VwPI/P-Chidambaram-Narayana-Murthy-spar-over-Aadhaar.html
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