AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 13234 - Understand the future, Arundhati Roy urges radical Left

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, April 9, 2018

13234 - Understand the future, Arundhati Roy urges radical Left - The Hindu

Understand the future, Arundhati Roy urges radical Left

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD, APRIL 07, 2018 22:13 IST

Writer-activist Arundhati Roy having a word with Civil Liberties Committee secretary N. Narayana Rao at its first Telangana State Congress in Hyderabad on Saturday.

‘New aggressive capitalism is masquerading as benevolent democracy’

Celebrated writer-activist Arundhati Roy urged the country’s Left to understand the future that is set to be controlled by technology and data-gathering.

While the radical Left was still talking about revolution, a revolution has already taken place wherein a former Brahminical elite was replaced by a new elite, which would survive only by manipulating the minds of the next generation, the Booker Prize winner said while delivering her address at the Civil Liberties Committee’s first Telangana State Congress here on Saturday.

Peasants and workers would not find a place in the future as there would not be any work. The future would pivot on technology, artificial intelligence and data-gathering, all of which would be used for surveillance of people.

“And we all know what fascism has done with surplus people,” she said, and warned of impending ‘micro fascism’ which would keep tab on the mass of unemployed people in cities with no access to resources, and who would be controlled using data gathered about them through Aadhaar and such tools.

The same corporation pushing for Aadhaar has set up large foundations to fund intellectuals, so as to buy their silence.

“Each time we agree to divide ourselves along caste, gender, communities, ethnicities, and language, it’s a success for the new aggressive capitalism masquerading as benevolent democracy,” Ms. Roy warned.

The complexity with which the future is coming upon us needs to be understood, as it would not be about winning elections, she said. The real danger to the society is not fundamentalism, but ‘cretinism’ and idiocy which seeks to attack every form of intelligence through attacks on universities.

“They have to break every single educational institution. They have to make every single history book, the work of a moron, so that the link between any kind of intelligent and radical politics is broken in the next generation,” she said.

Likening the note ban to “breaking the backs” of citizens, she said people rioted when it was sought to be implemented in other countries such as Venezuela. In India, there was anger, but the move was accepted. Similar situation prevails around Judge Loya’s mysterious death. These are tests to see how far people would accept control. “This is how fascism is creeping in on us today,” she said.

Academic-activist Nandini Sundar said the combination of state power and vigilante forces has become the norm across the country, and law itself has become a tool of harassment. Fascism is using technology to promote medievalism, and the fight would not stop with the 2019 elections, but would be continued till the “poison” is removed from minds, she said.

Another academic G. Haragopal observed that the development model of the present dispensation was inhuman, and that was why it needed exercise of power. The destruction which had begun during the Congress regime was continuing now with more viciousness, he said, condemning the arrest of students on false allegations of conspiring to kill the Vice-Chancellor of University of Hyderabad.

Writer and intellectual Katyayani said civil rights were not only about Maoists, but the awareness needs to be created among citizens, especially the middle-class.