Saturday, May 14, 2011

Why Aadhar Project And UIDAI Are Dangerous

It seems Google is still facing the technical problems as its news servers are giving a 503 error. Despite our posting this article twice, it failed to appear at Google news. While Google's Blogger platofm says that everything is alright, it seems many technical issues have yet to be resolve by it before Blogger is finally back.

Google’s Blogger platform has recently faced a technical glitch due to data corruption. This resulted in inability to post to Blogger platforms as well as deletion of some recent posts and comment. With the diligent efforts of Google, not only Blogger is back but even the posts have been restored.

Our citizen journalism platform is also Blogger based. This may be reason why our post titled “the dangers of Aadhar project and UIDAI” did not appear in the Google’s News segment. We are posting the same once again for our readers. Any inconvenience is regretted.

Unique identification project (UID project) or Aadhar project of India is always portrayed as a welfare scheme. In reality, Aadhar project and UIDAI have evil intentions. In fact, Aadhar project and UIDAI are the most evil projects of India till now.

What is more surprising is why this e-surveillance and big brother project has not been scrapped by the Prime Minister’s office (PMO). In this interview of Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based ICT Law Firm Perry4Law and a Supreme Court Lawyer, he has shared his opinion and concerns regarding Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Q 1. Is India ready for a controversial project like Aadhar?

A 1. In my personal opinion, India is not yet ready for either Aadhar Project/UID Project or Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). In fact, both Aadhar and UIDAI are “Highly Undesirable” at this stage. Aadhar and UIDAI must be preceded by a Constitutionally Sound Legal Framework and Parliamentary Oversight. Both of these are missing presently making it an “Unconstitutional Project”.

Q 2. What is the process of making a constitutionally sound law in India?

A 2. Constitutionally preparation of a Legislation/Bill is the duty of Indian Government and it must be passed by the Parliament of India. In this case, an authority like UIDAI is suggesting the Bill that (UIDAI) itself is devoid of any Constitutional Validity. Indian Government must come up with its own Bill on Aadhar Project as even the Bill by UIDAI is mere “Eyewash” and does not make much difference. Even if it is passed by Parliament of India, the Unconstitutional Nature of the Aadhar Project and UIDA would remain the same.

Q-3. What are the serious concerns that have been ignored by Indian Government, UIDAI and Indian Cabinet?

A-3 I found it really surprising the way the Bill prepared by UIDAI was cleared by Cabinet and introduced in the Parliament. Many issues, including Profiling, Privacy Safeguards, Civil Liberties Protection, E-Surveillance, etc have been totally neglected by UIDAI and Cabinet and perhaps would be ignored by the Parliament of India as well.

Q 4. How do you see the present activities of Aadhar project and UIDAI?

A 4. The present exercise of taking Biometric Details of Indians is simply “Unconstitutional”. A Project and Authority without any Legal Sanction and Parliamentary Oversight cannot indulge in these activities on such a mass scale. I believe the Government of India is violating various Civil Liberties of Indian though Aadhar Project and UIDAI by making it, Directly and Indirectly, Relevant and Mandatory.

Q-5. Is Aadhar project and UIDAI still not governed by any legal framework and what are the recent developments in this regard?

A 5 Yes. Till now the position has not changed. Rather it has become worst where the District like Mysore has made UID Number Mandatory for various Public Services even though UIDAI claims it to be Optional. Practically UID never was, and never will be, Optional.

Q 6. What are the possible Civil Liberty violations that Indians can face in near future?

A 6. There are great chances that Biometric Details of Indian would be shared with Intelligence Agencies of India and Law Enforcement Agencies of India. Projects like National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS). Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc would love to utilise these Biometric Details.