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, May 2, 2018

13411 - Telcos forcing you to link Aadhaar? This petition is urging TRAI to pull them up - The News Minute

Aadhaar
Telcos forcing you to link Aadhaar? This petition is urging TRAI to pull them up
The petition is urging TRAI to pull up telecom service providers who are wrongfully forcing people to link their Aadhaar to their numbers.

Over the last few months, cell phone users must have grown all too used to telecom companies sending persistent messages, urging them to link their Aadhaar. This, even as the Supreme Court has said that linking of the Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory as long as the arguments against its constitutional validity are being heard.

Now, a petition is urging TRAI to pull up telecom service providers who are wrongfully forcing people to link their Aadhaar to their numbers, and even refusing to issue a new SIM unless Aadhaar is provided.

The petition on campaigning platform Jhatkaa, says:
“For more than a year, you, me and a billion of our fellow citizens have been receiving messages from the likes of Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance regarding “mandatory” linking. Many of us also had a difficult time in purchasing a SIM card. Did you know that at some places even foreigners were asked to provide their Aadhaar card to purchase SIM cards?

The Supreme Court finally gave us some clarity on this matter. The court says that Aadhaar is just one of the MANY verification options, and not the only one.

Until the case of Aadhaar’s constitutional validity is completely heard, telecom companies should not jump the gun and harass individuals by asking them to link their Aadhaar number. And this directive should come from TRAI, the body that regulates India’s telecom sector.”

The petition, which is addressed to TRAI chairperson RS Sharma, urges him to tell telcos to wait until the SC hears the arguments against Aadhaar and subsequently rules on the mandatory linking aspect.

It also explains how the government has been making another claim – that it is in fact the apex court which mandated linking Aadhaar to mobile number. But a few days ago, UIDAI counsel Rakesh Dwivedi even admitted to the SC that while the court had not demanded the linkage, the government had started pushing for it based on recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

What had actually happened was that in February 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered for verification of all cell phone subscribers within a year. However, while the recommendation that Aadhaar should be used for verification came up, there was no mandate to make it the only way to authenticate a SIM card.
The government however, took this to say that it was the Supreme Court which had directed for mandatory SIM-Aadhaar linking.  In fact, here’s a tweet by Law and Justice and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, making the claim on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/rsprasad/status/906933971182747648
The Jhatkaa petition urges people to come together to urge TRAI to pull up telecom companies and stand against the telcos who force customers to provide Aadhaar details to recharge their phones, get a new SIM and so on.
You can access the petition here.

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