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

Saturday, May 19, 2018

13539 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 18th May 2018



Economic Times
NEW DELHI: The 12-digit unique identity that is Aadhaar, provides identification to more than 1.2 billion Indians. Its ability to uniquely identify ...





Times of India
NEW DELHI: A fake mail telling users about the changes in the Aadhaar card download password is doing rounds. The mail comes with a link asking ...






Business Standard
Even as the government promotes Aadhaar as an enabler to ensure that food and other subsidies reach the poor, a new report on Thursday said that ...






The Hindu
The Karnataka High Court has directed the State government and the Department of Pre-University Education not to insist on a copy of Aadhaar for ...






Financial Express
Aadhaar — the 12-digit biometric identity — has been a centre of controversy lately over privacy issues, while the Narendra Modi government kept ...




Financial Express
As soon as a person changes his job, the first thing he wants is to get his Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) account managed. Earlier, an employee ...






Scroll.in
The idea was that Aadhaar would accurately identify beneficiaries and help plug leakages in fertiliser subsidies, worth Rs 70,000 crore annually, given ...






Business Standard
Chief Justice Dipak Misra has just concluded a four-month-long hearing in the Aadhaar case, considered the second lengthiest one in the history of ...






Elets
Aadhaar card is not mandatory for central government employees availing pension benefits, according to Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for ...






Economic Times
Once logged in, you can update the know-your-customer (KYC) documents and get them approved from your employer. Input your Aadhaar and PAN ...








Deccan Herald
Aadhaar has long been an object of contention in India. Introduced during the UPA-II government's rule in 2010, Aadhaar was a new national ID ...




Times of India
In a bid to put a curb on multiple admissions by students, Aadhaar has been made mandatory for taking admission in engineering courses across the ...






The Hindu
... per the guidelines, all smart cards can only be issued after a commuter provides documents, such as a passport or driver's licence or Aadhaar card.






Business Line
The promotion of JAM — Aadhaar along with Jan Dhan accounts and mobile phones — may have been beneficial in targeting welfare transfers, but ...




BW Businessworld
"For me, the greatest technological revolution are - schemes like Aadhaar, at least 70 per cent of the population having access to toilets, and electricity ...






Nagaland Post
The benefit for those without Aadhaar cards or those who have not linked their cards with their bank accounts, after the month of June, shall be ...






Bangalore Mirror
Students can log into the DigiLocker accounts using their Aadhaar number to access their digital marks card. A one-time password (OTP) will be sent ...






BloombergQuint
As the judge presiding over the Aadhaar hearings in 2015, Justice Chelameswar was the one who referred the case to a Constitution Bench to decide ...






The Hindu
If they produce an Aadhaar card, it has to be authenticated by taking a biometric print. “It make take more than five minutes to issue a card. We do not ...






Daily News & Analysis
The Maharashtra government has equipped fair price shops with point of sale (POS) machines to disburse grain through Aadhaar enabled biometric ...






The Hindu
However, driving licences and Aadhaar cards will have to be furnished to hire them. The service was started at Miyapur three months ago. Rental ...






The Quint
Vancouver, May 18 (IANS) From Canada, that boasts of a first Indian-origin Defence Minister in Harjit Singh Sajjan, here is the story of another ...






Daily Pioneer
Similarly, for Aadhaar seeding the banks should depute nodal officers at headquarters and district levels so that the task is completed in a speedy ...






The Siasat Daily
Hyderabad: Prof. S.A. Shukoor, Director of Urdu Academy who is the nodal officer for arranging Urdu Officers' Examination informed that the ...






Livemint
With more than a billion users on the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity and the increasing adoption of open access and inclusive technologies, we ...