Aadhar Project And UIDAI Must Be Scrapped

Till now it is absolutely clear that the proposed Aadhar Project of India or Unique Identification Project of India (UID Project of India) has no developmental or welfare oriented interests and intentions. The proposed Aadhar Project aims to benefit few selected IT Companies by allotting them the tenders and contracts to implement the Aadhar Project.

This seems to be another “Backdoor Method” of illegally distributing hard earned Public Money through governmental machinery. Surprisingly the opposition parties like BJP are playing deaf and dumb game and are silent on crucial issues like corruption, misappropriation of public money, violation of civil liberties like privacy rights of Indians, illegal and excessive e-surveillance, etc.

In a democratic and Parliamentary form of Government, opposition plays a pro active and constructive role. BJP and similar parties have drastically failed to fulfill this role and the Congress Party is having a clear and unfettered say for illegal and Unconstitutional Projects like Aadhar, NATGRID, CCTNS, etc.

The Nandan Nilekani led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Aadhar Project must be scrapped immediately till proper laws and adequate safeguards are at place. India does not have either Privacy Law or Data Protection Law.

If the Government of India keeps on imposing these sorts of illegal and Unconstitutional Projects upon us, we must take immediate steps to make them redundant. Let us start by saying no to the UID Cards and restrain from giving our Biometric Details.

Congress Government Of India Is Taking Anti National Steps

The Commonwealth Games debacle is not yet over and the Congress led government is about to commit another blunder. It seems Congress has lost all its control over its Ministers who are blatantly engaging in corrupt practices and maladministration.

Firstly, it was the spectrum scam now it is the commonwealth organizing committee that is clearly and unambiguously involved in corrupt practices.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are looking helplessly, even if they are not involved in these corrupt practices that have brought great disgrace to India. Surprisingly, they have not learnt any lesson from their past mistakes and inactions. Now the duo of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are extending their support for another Anti National Project named as Aadhar Project of India or UID Project of India.

Both Aadhar Project and UIDAI are unconstitutional project and unconstitutional authority. Neither the Aadhar Project nor the UIDAI are governed by any Legal Framework nor are they under Parliamentary Scrutiny.

The Union Cabinet has casually granted its approval to the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 (NIDAI Bill 2010) with great disregard to the Civil liberties of Indians, especially Privacy Rights of Indians. Even after this approval, both Aadhar Project and UIDAI are still “Unconstitutional and Illegal”.

There should not be any action upon UID Cards and Aadhar Project till proper safeguards are at place. It seems the duo of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi has not considered this aspect. The “Constitutional Scheme” of Indian Constitution has kept the functions of Legislature, Executive and Judiciary separate. Yet the Executive are encroaching upon the regime of Indian Parliament and are implementing Projects and wasting crores of public money without “Parliamentary Approval”.

Under the garb of welfare scheme and development all sorts of irregularities and illegalities are given full support by the Congress led government. It is high time for the Congress to change the “Anti National Mindset” that is seriously damaging the reputation of India and faith among Indian masses.

Unconstitutional Identification Authority Of India

No time in the history of India, the civil liberties and human rights of Indians were at such a great stake. Illegal and unconstitutional projects like Aadhar project of India/UID project of India, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc have crossed all the constitutional limits and Indian citizens and Indian courts are just moot spectators.

The suo motu powers of Indian constitutional courts has all of sudden vanished and the courts are not finding anything wrong in allowing projects that have no legal framework and parliamentary scrutiny to back them up.

Take the case of the most dangerous of all these projects named as Aadhar project. It is headed by Nandan Nilekani as the head of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI).

However, it would be more appropriate to call the Aadhar project as Niraadhar (without any base) and UIDAI as “unconstitutional identification authority of India”. To start with, Indian citizens must say a firm and absolute “No” to the Aadhar project and giving away biometric details.

India does not have any dedicated data protection and privacy law. Even our basic telephone numbers are freely available to telemarketing companies. By making available all our personal details along with biometric information, we are heading towards a big trouble.

It is high time to go for a “mass boycott” of Aadhar project and force the Indian government to enact suitable privacy and data protection laws before any such project must be proceeded with.

When Rights Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Rights

Philip R. "Phil" Zimmermann Jr. (born February 12, 1954) is one of the greatest civil liberty protectors in the cyberspace. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone.

In his rationale for creating PGP he tells that using PGP is good for preserving democracy. He believes that if privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy. This is so true not only in the context of America but also India.

India is passing through the worst era of police state and e-surveillance society. Even worst is the reliance upon American models that have failed in America itself. But Home Minister P.Chidambaram is not discouraged by these failures and he would stop only on the failure of these models in India.

Even the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and Department of Telecommunications (DOT) have joined this blind and ignorant race and are trying to ban telecommunication services like Blackberry and Skype and Internet services like Gmail.

These departments are troubled by the strong and secure encryption technology and other similar technologies that prevent unlawful and illegal e-surveillance by the government and its agencies. Criminals and terrorists are already using these, and much better options, and these ignorant actions would only trouble and violate the civil liberties of law abiding citizens alone.

All the limits in this regard were crossed when the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (IT Act 2008) was made an enforceable law in India. The IT Act 2008 provides unregulated, unconstitutional and illegal e-surveillance, Internet censorship and website blocking powers in the hands of Indian government and its agencies. There is no mechanism at all that can prevent the abuses of these powers and there is no accountability as well.

A time has come in India when Human Rights in Cyberspace are clearly outlawed and only outlaws (as per the norms and standards of Indian government) would have these Human Rights. This is the main reason why I dedicated a resource titled Human Rights Protection in Cyberspace (HRPIC) to those law abiding citizens who cherish and wish to protect their civil liberties in cyberspace.

With further illegal and unconstitutional projects like CCTNS, NATGRID, UID Project/Aadhar Project, etc things are only going to be worst in India. The only option remains is to use self defence against the persons, institutions and agencies that are engaging in illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance and civil liberty violations.

Appraisal Of National Identification Authority Of India Bill 2010

The National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 (Bill) has been recently proposed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The Bill, if made a law, would be called National Identification Authority of India Act, 2010 (Act). Here are some of the salient features of the Bill:

(1) The Bill is still not a valid piece of legislation till it is approved by both the Houses of the Parliament, receives President’s assent and then finally notified in Official Gazette by the Government of India.

(2) The Bill is not a comprehensive one and neither has it intended to cover all the aspects of Aadhar project of India. The Bill’s main objective is to provide legitimacy to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) renamed as the National Identification Authority of India (NIDAI) and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

(3) The Bill has picked up many provisions of the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act 2000) for various issues. One of them also pertains to the extra territorial application of the Bill.

(4) The Bill is a good piece of work as far as administrative aspects of Aadhar project is concerned. However, it has almost nothing to offer regarding protecting civil liberties of Indians. Privacy issues, data protection issues, etc are missing from the Bill.

(5) By making the IT Act 2000 a base for many of its provisions, the Bill has incorporated the weaknesses and lacunas of the same. It seems the members drafting the Bill did not take pain to do some good research and formulate new and better provisions.

(6) The Bill’s greatest strength is its Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model through which it is seeking the expertise and assistance of various individuals, institutions, etc. The Bill is also great to the extent it catering the requirements of Research and Development regarding some of the most crucial aspects of contemporary times.

(7) The Bill has its own list of Offences and Penalties. The list though not adequate but if supported by different and supplementary legislations would strengthen the Bill. These provisions have been inspired by the IT Act 2000 with all its limitations and demerits.

(8) Provision regarding delegation of authority of the NIDAI is also incorporated to bring flexibility among the functioning of the authority. The only fact that has to be kept in mind is that this delegation must not be abused for private gains of private players.

(9) The provisions of this Act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law for the time being in force. Thus, other law would supplement the provisions of this Bill and make it more effective.

In short, this is a great enabling legislation for the UIDAI/NIDAI and its administrative functions. It has taken care of most of the aspects that would allow the authority to perform its functions effectively, transparently and with accountability. Proper care has been taken to use PPP Model as well as to use the expertise of others.

On the negative side, the Act does not cater the civil liberties requirement that is also the toughest challenge before it and the first and foremost challenge for its authority. This may be due to the fact that the Act never intends to cater the civil liberties requirements and has left it for the Indian government through a separate legislation.

The NIDAI would face the challenge of “Unconstitutionality” on two counts. Firstly, the authority must be constituted by a proper law. This requirement would be fulfilled if the Bill is made an enforceable law. The second is that it must not violate the Civil Liberties of Indians. This is a tricky issues and the same has also been avoided by the present Bill. The Indian government has promised to enact laws regarding privacy and data protection very soon.

If the Bill and those laws are combined, they may take care of the constitutionality attacks and the NIDAI may proceed further for its tasks. But for the time being, both Aadhar Project and UIDAI/NIDAI are “Unconstitutional” Project and Authority.