AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 13730 - ‘7 hunger deaths related to Aadhaar’-Times of India

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, June 25, 2018

13730 - ‘7 hunger deaths related to Aadhaar’-Times of India

‘7 hunger deaths related to Aadhaar’

Damica Mawlong | TNN | Jun 22, 2018, 14:09 IST

Ranchi: Over 12 cases of alleged hunger deaths have been reported from across Jharkhand in over 10 months and seven of them are linked to the victims not getting any ration because of Aadhaar-related issues, an activist has said.

Addressing the media on Thursday, developmental economist and activist Jean Dreze said the government is yet to admit that the deaths occurred due to starvation. “The recent deaths of Savitri Devi in Giridih, Meena Musahar in Chatra and Chintaman Malhar in Ramgarh show the government’s lack of interest to address the issue of alleged hunger deaths in the state,” Dreze said, adding, “The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for the pilot project of the Food Security Act in Nagri block was a fiasco. Instead of accepting the flaw in the system, the government said it will conduct a survey of their own to find out where things went wrong.”

Nagri residents had protested against the government’s DBT system in ration distribution and were reluctant to follow it. “The government started this pilot project in Nagri thinking it would be favourable and successful and later they want to extend it to the entire state,” Dreze told TOI.

Savitri Devi, a 60-year-old resident of Dumri in Giridih, allegedly died of starvation on June 2. A survey conducted by members of the Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand found that no food was cooked in Devi’s house for three days preceding her death. “Devi’s pension was sanctioned four years ago. But she did not receive the money as her bank account was not ‘linked with Aadhaar’,” Dreze said. “She kept going to the bank, asking if her money has been credited or not, to which she always received a negative comment. She last went to inquire about it in March this year,” he added.

However, Devi’s pension money was credited to her bank account in April, but she was not aware that she had money in her account as no one informed her.

Union secretary of food and public distribution Ravi Kant had on Wednesday said under no circumstances, should public distribution system (PDS) beneficiaries be deprived of food grains because of Aadhaar-related problems. Governor Droupadi Murmu had also clearly mentioned the direction issued by the Centre that failure to link Aadhaar with ration card should not be made a ground for rejection of allotting foodgrains to any beneficiary under any circumstances.

Dreze said, “That is a statement of intent. No one is doing anything about it. The eligibility for a ration card in Jharkhand is not bad, unless you have a four-wheeler, a pucca house with three rooms, a government job and five acres of land.” He added, “All of the seven victims, who died due to Aadhaar-related hunger issues, were all eligible to procure a ration card. The government needs to take responsibility and cater to the need of the poor.”

“If the government thinks that it does not have the capability to go through the identification process (in relation with Aadhaar), then it should just resolve the problem by universalizing the PDS in rural areas and include nutritious items in the PDS,” the economist said.