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Friday, April 19, 2024

Creeping Aadhar: A surveillance  Mechanism or Black Money Prevention Program?

 

FM Arun Jaitley, unveiled his budget in Lok Sabha making Aadhaar compulsory to pay taxes, even if a tax filer has PAN. If Aadhar number is not there the Government has the authority to cancel PAN.  According to  Mr Jaitley, Aadhar-PAN link will remove the problem of multiple PAN cards and black money. Having multiple PAN cards is a crime and the wrongdoers can be prosecuted; but why are we harassing honest taxpayers with Aadhar.

Black money has become a magic password to push through this Aadhar surveillance agenda through a money bill. And Aadhaar is not foolproof either. There are reports of a single person having multiple Aadhar cards, even reports of Rohingyas and Bangladeshi illegals getting Aadhar. Apart from such fraud, there are other serious issues with the Aadhar.

Surveillance and Privacy issues

A blogger, St. hill mentioned in his tweet that by typing ‘aadhar number name filetype:xls’ a lot of ‘private’ Aadhar information is available in public. A single search of ‘aadhar number name filetype:xls’ gave over a thousand results.  Files of land records of people of Karnataka along with Aadhaar number, Bank Name, account holder name and amount in account. This is a grave security risk. This info is available for any lay person. Imagine, the amount of personal information a person with access to the Aadhar DB can have?

Also, Aadhar collection centers have been outsourced to different companies – there is no guarantee that the company did not store any of the personal information it collected. Adhar-PAN link provides a convenient mechanism for companies, and govt to track your spending, travelling and other habits. The BIG BROTHER is watching you.

A naive frame of thinking is ‘I did not do anything wrong, why should I worry?’ Lutyens’ elite from across party lines do not have to worry even after humongous crimes like 2G, 3G, coal scams. It is the common citizens who should be worried about the state overreach. With Aadhar-PAN link, a nameless faceless  babu can know where your kid goes to school, by tracing your check payment or bank transfer. This is extremely dangerous in states where crime, kidnapping are rampant.

All this information is lethal for an ordinary citizen and an existential threat when the state tries to use non-state actors as in 1984 anti-sikh riots. In a tweet Harnindh Kaur said:

“… insidious way Aadhar is creeping into our lives, … all I can think of is 1984 and how the mobs ran amok in West Delhi, all [had] voter ID lists. So many Sikh families were saved because they stayed in Hindu families homes or in rented places, imagine them having biometric data …”

Her fears are well founded, and anyone can be at the receiving end. Not too long ago in 1975, there was emergency imposed in Bharat by Indira Gandhi and civil liberties were suspended. Many people were jailed and tortured; many others went underground. With Biometric data in the hands of govt, and govt tracking us at every step of the way, anonymity will not exist any more and escaping the state wrath becomes even more difficult, if not impossible. Bharatiya citizens also need protection from state tyranny. The intent of the current Government notwithstanding, there is no guarantee that a future Government will not revert to Indira Gandhi’s dictatorial mindset – after all, dynastic politics is still alive and kicking even today.

This is the main reason Western nations do not collect biometric data of their citizens at all. Criminals, pedophiles etc are fingerprinted. And any person looking for a job in the schools or where they come in contact with kids are fingerprinted and checked against the existing DB (database). US social security number is just a number and does not have biometric data. Even then, their privacy laws are strict and are implemented vigorously.

Legal Issues

SC of Bharat in 2015 reiterated its earlier order dated Sept 2013 against making Aadhaar mandatory. And in Feb 2017, the Karnataka High Court Justice AS Bopanna ordered the Karnataka government departments to provide subsidised foodgrains even without an Aadhaar card, in response to a writ petition filed by Sukanga GS. So, making Aadhar compulsory for paying  taxes goes against these judgments.

The back-handed way the FM Jaitley is bringing this insidious PAN-Aadhaar link to file taxes is insidious. CM Modi on 8 Apr, 2014 had said:

“On Aadhaar, neither the Team that I met nor PM could answer my Qs on security threat it can pose. There is no vision, only political gimmick”

Master communicator PM Modi did not explain why Aadhar is good, now. If PM Modi thinks Aadhar is ‘necessary’, he could put the topic up for debate and discuss the issue and address the privacy and surveillance concerns of experts and citizens alike. Pushing Aadhar as a money bill is not consistent with either minimum governance or transparent governance.

Universal identification and its drawbacks

If one credit/debit card is compromised, it is bad enough to recover financially. If all your information is linked to one universal id and if that id is compromised, all your financial information is compromised. In compartmentalized systems, risk is reduced. In universalized systems, risk is complete and total. In a country where courts take take decades to give judgment in criminal cases, ID theft cases do not even form a blip on their radar. Hapless victims of ID theft are left to fend for themselves.

It is unfortunate that the Modi administration is not building strong institutions that can withstand an autocratic or despotic PM. Institutions that  protect individual rights and liberty are needed in the country because too many institutions have been compromised by the dynasty. Instead, the Modi admin is ushering in an era of surveillance stealthily.

Disclaimer: This article represents the opinions of the Author, and the Author is responsible for ensuring the factual veracity of the content. HinduPost will not be responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information, contained herein.


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Mallika Patlolla
Mallika Patlolla
MS in Computer Engg; Worked in several Silicon Valley companies in 1990s and 2000s. Avid reader and completed some Journalism courses from San Jose State Univ. Now a resident of Hyderabad, Telangana. I volunteer in local Poor Students Ashrama and for social causes like rain water harvesting, dry waste segregation and recycling.

2 COMMENTS

  1. After thinking about this for a while I wrote so more:

    ——————————
    http://postcard.news/transforming-parallel-economy-black-money-growth-economy/

    For some reason, as I was reading this article, I suddenly had the realization:

    Let’s look at the government. Isn’t this government based on a British parliamentary system? I had the feeling in the beginning of the article that you are beginning to understand why there is black money to start with: because taxation is so high, you have two choices – 1) do what you love to do, but have ātmā taxed out of you (you have to sell yourself to enjoy the work you do, if it makes good money), or 2) find something that you hate to do or something that doesn’t require much skill or investment of your time and energy to be good at what you have to do (sales, clerical work, etc. comes to mind), giving you a smaller salary, but (this is my experience in America, but I suspect it’s the same in Bhārata) at a lower salary, you have a lower tax rate, so less of your money is taken from you.

    In essence, you have to decide if you want to pay a high tax for something you love to do, or out of a grudging against the gov’t for its practices and taxation policies, frustrate the gov’t by giving it as little taxation money as you can get away with legally.

    I was also seeing you beginning to understand that it isn’t the badness of the people blacking the money, but the government practices that makes it expensive to do business in the country. Remove the block of high taxation, then there would be no need to blacken or laundry the money, so long as it is outside of drugs, sex, arms, and cattle smuggling.

    However, you seem to fail to see the possibility that the most recent state of the government has been one of a Western Parliamentary system (focusing on the finances aspect only for this comment) that struggles with understanding why OTHER western governments have much better finances AND infrastructure (nice roads/streets/highways, relatively clean sidewalks and plenty of them for safe walking and access, more recent construction, etc.). It appears (and I hope you see this) that finally, the GOI is finally learning how to emulate other WESTERN gov’t more closely to make itself more western in its CONTROL of people, who in western societies are NOT treated as “the people who voted in the gov’t officials and have the right to ORDER the gov’t to do what they want it to do,” but as SUBJECTS of the gov’t. In other words, The gov’t tells you what to do on EVERYTHING. That is NOT how Indic Kingdoms ran. It was answerable to the people of the land, not the other way around as it has historically been in Europe and elsewhere in the absence of dharma.

    A reason I can see why America and Europe are more successful as they are today is because they have managed to successfully and completely conquer the native population of the land they took over. Here in America, the government does not have Native Americans to complicate its domestic affairs like Bhārata does with agitative Muslims, aggressive Christian Missionaries, and Maoist/Naxalite Communists, and the people who fund their divisive efforts.

    Another reason is that the gov’ts of these nations are built entirely on Westernism to start with, but Bhārata was once an Indic-gov’t nation, and there is that feeling that there is something missing in the machinery that is the present GOI. So, what is set up is this thing of the people not liking how the GOI works like a satellite of the UK (and it still does!) at a very deep personal level and going about ways of frustrating the gov’t.

    Look at it this way. Facts are just notes about the material world, but are they always true? It is a fact that the Taj Mahal exists in Agra, but will it be a fact 500 years from now, 1000 years from now? You are alive today, that is a fact. But is it still a fact 100 years from now if you die before then? In this case, facts are not truth. Truths are eternal, no matter what.

    It is a FACT that the GOI is operating as a parliamentary system, but is it based on “dharma?” No. Facts about the GOI can change from time to time, but the truth never changes; either it is operating on dharma, or it is not – what is government dharma? That never changes, and this question has to be answered every time.

    To that end, my feeling as I stated above, as I was reading this article, is that the GOI is merely tightening the noose on your necks insofar as how they control money in the economy, how it flows, and even who it flows TO. They’re figuring out how to become a better Western government, and I don’t know that the people supporting demonetization, in exactly the manner it has gone about, understand that clearly and instead safeguard the cash transactions for cashed-based people. Please print this out and put this in with your memorable papers so that you can read this again and see if this turns out to be true 30 years from now.

    My sincere hope is I am wrong, that the economy doesn’t become westernized like America or Europe, where everything you do is tracked (unless in America, you make the practice of always keeping cash on you to do your purchases on a daily basis). The thing you must understand is that the banking system in Bhārata is being integrated with business in a very adharmic way, and that is, when banks can track your purchases, they can SELL your purchase information in the form of a “shopping database,” or a consumer list to businesses interested in selling you things. You will hate this because you will wonder how the web sites with ads know that you like a particular drink or products for your house, people will randomly call you, asking if you want to buy this or that, and if the westernization of Bhārata becomes complete, you will then get spam or junk mail in your mail box (I don’t mean e-mail. I mean mail you pick up at the post office, a letter from your aunty, and you get close to half-a-pound to a pound of waste paper advertisements). This is consumer’s hell on earth. People pestering you for money to buy this and that when you don’t need it. These businesses in hand with the bankers want to turn YOU into consumers just as materialistic as Americans are, because they don’t know how to be happy with the things they have nor with the success they’ve had. This will make society even more adharmic than it is now (I know, as I’ve spent six weeks in two cities over there). The bankers and the business people are completely extroverted, epicureans chasing after their desires. Look at the Bhagavad Gītā, ślokas 2.70-71:

    2.70: As the waters enter the ocean from all sides, it remains steady and unperturbed. So also, the desires enter a person of steadiness, tranquility, and peace (without causing any perturbation). It is not so in (an epicure) a person who seeks desires.

    2.71: He, who has abandoned his desires and who wanders free from desires and a sense of ego and mineness attains peace.

    These Epicurean bankers and business people want to use YOU to make them rich, not to make YOU happy with the things you buy, because if you have everything you need, what then is the need to buy anything else when you have your needs met? Where is their income going to come from if you are not buying their merchandise, which has to move to keep them in their big houses with a swimming pool in the back and 2-3 cars in the garage? The world can meet your needs for survival, but as Svāmīji says, the world cannot meet the wants of a single person, as they are unlimited.

    I know that Bhārata needs to get a handle on the current financial situation, but I just have a sneaking feeling that there is an ulterior motive for the demonetization effort that lies beyond what is obvious; black money, illegal deals, political influences, hiding money so that rich people making LOTS of money end up paying the same amount of tax or even less than that of a rickshaw driver. I feel that rather, the ulterior motive lies with the outsiders to Bhārata who own and run this world, who also want to gain a stronger foothold in your country, and then control you like they have in Europe for centuries and for a couple of centuries in America.

    YOU are next! I believe that Bhārata is walking right into a trap.
    ———————–

  2. These are my concerns regarding the demonetization and what the author of this article is warning us about.

    ————————–
    I’ve been keeping up somewhat with the black money situation in India, namely that the Rs 500 and 1000 bills have been demonetized to bring in black money and cancel out counterfeit money sneaked in by India’s enemies. I have several things to say on this.

    At first, I thought the deblacking procedure was a fantastic way of regaining control of the money supply, but then, I thought, “Wait a minute, this is a bit familiar.” This is a western extension of the banking class’s tentacles into the banking system. Remember that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) necessarily has to play by the rules of the world banking class, and therefore, you have westernized Indians and other westernized people inside the whole organization. Look how corrupt the Indian banking system has turned out to be.

    This means that this seems to be an attempt to rope everyone in India into the banking system, so that everyone’s purchases can be tracked (especially over that of 10,000-20,000r at once), and the GOI and businesses can figure out where the money is going in commerce. Legal bank accounts are going to be used for the most part in legal transactions, like you want to buy a car, a house, pay the temple for consecration services for your pūjā room, etc.

    I state the above because I did financial research of an underground sorts a few years ago. This involved learning about how the western monetary system REALLY works to benefit the WHITE BANKING class at the expense of EVERYONE ELSE not part of this inner circle. My concern about this strike against black money is whether the intended effect INTENTIONALLY INCLUDED impacting the temple hundi money system so that the temples can be broken and wiped out. I wonder about this, now. The temples take a lot from Rs 100 bills and lower and convert them to Rs 500 and 1000 bills to take up less room in the “bank room” of the temple. Was this an intended impact on the temples, or not? What is the law on taxation of temples from its donations?

    One thing that concerns me is how the tightening of the financial system is occurring.

    For instance, if you have these bills, you have to take them to the bank within the time frame, account for them, DEPOSIT them into a bank account (no, you cannot exchange like-for-like and walk back out with new cash above Rs 4,000). Anything over that amount has to be deposited into a bank account.

    There is a withdrawal limit of Rs 10,000 per day or Rs 25,000 PER WEEK. That is only about $150 and $300 USD respectively. Think about that… If your thing in your house, which costs Rs 45,000, breaks, and you have to replace it within two days, how are you going to conduct the transaction? Through a bank check or debit card… This is how the banks can track your buying habits and GIVE that information to businesses for online ads, junk mail, etc. Another excuse that is given is to give the banks time to eventually get all the new cash out in as many people’s hands as possible. But are they going to make this a permanent part of ATM transactions? We have that here in the US, though not as draconian as it is in India now. Part of this is “exchanging freedom for security.” A very common tactic in America.

    For cash deposited above a certain level, an article states, “If cash amount of above Rs.10 lakh is deposited in a bank A/C, not matching with declared income, same will be treated as tax evasion,” and “In such case, tax amount plus a penalty of 200 per cent of the tax payable would be levied as per Section 270(A) of the Income Tax Act. This is in keeping with the provisions of Section 270(A), which deals with the penalty for under reporting and misreporting of income… where under-reported income is in consequence of any misreporting thereof by any person, the penalty referred… shall be equal to two hundred per cent of the amount of tax payable on under-reported income Section 270(A).” The IRS uses similar measures to control unreported income, even among very poor people. The IRS is highly feared in the States and only recently has come to be challenged, and even then, the challenging doesn’t go very far.

    Why is there a need to track all these activities and make everyone toe the line? Is it that the banking class knows that people don’t like the financial slavery that is imposed on them and will try to find ways to get out of it and regain some sense of financial freedom independent of the banking class? We in America and Europe have dealt with this for hundreds of years. The classical response to that has been made by people, especially poor people vulnerable to the vagaries of economic disruptions caused by malinvestment as a result of capitalism and the greed that is part and parcel of western economics, is to take the cash they earn, legally free and clear (after taxes and cashed out of the bank account), and go buy gold and silver in easily-recognizable forms (though in India now, you are tracked through the PAN card for purchases over Rs 2 lakh (200,000), only $3,000 USD. We have a requirement in the US that transactions for gold/silver over $10,000 has to be reported to the IRS. This is why rural people in India don’t trust the government and prefer to keep transactions in cash, in person, and put their savings in gold/silver (“getting rid of cash”), because they don’t trust their own government not to inflate the money supply as has happened in the decades before, and they don’t trust the western-controlled banking system.

    What I’m saying about this is that in America, gold/silver hardly forms any basis of savings for the vast majority of Americans, and there is a $10,000 limit (Rs 6.6 lakh), BUT in India, where rural people do most things or save in gold/silver, you have a limit of only $3,000 (Rs 2 lakh). What is up with that?? What is up with that is that the banks are trying to find out who has the gold and uses it consistently for high-value purchases, so that maybe they can threaten confiscation and force people to turn in their gold. That was attempted on gold AND SILVER in the US in 1933 under Executive Order 6102, which was stated as, “The New York Times, on April 6, 1933, p. 16, wrote under the headline ‘Hoarding of Gold’, ‘The Executive Order issued by the President yesterday amplifies and particularizes his earlier warnings against hoarding. On March 6, taking advantage of a wartime statute that had not been repealed, he issued Presidential Proclamation 2039 that forbade the hoarding ‘of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency,’ under penalty of $10,000 and/or up to five to ten years imprisonment.’ ”

    However, this was executed in a completely different environment, in that the currency of the US was backed by gold, and this effectively demonetized gold as money. This is not the case for India. BUT, the GOI, for some reason or other, could attempt to confiscate gold and silver (and anything else from the people they could sell to keep the GOI functioning). The danger lies in the GOI following the historical behaviors of western governments and enslaving the people completely.

    Anyway, the questions become, if the farmers are legitimately growing and selling produce profitably, what business it is of the banking class, after the earnings have been taxed, to know exactly what the farmers do with the cash over Rs 4,000-10,000-20,000 if it is being legitimately used for new fuel, tractor repairs, feed for animals, things the family needs to last them through to the next harvest system? Why does the banking class need to know exactly what the farmers, isolated from the city environment of modern banking, are doing with their money AND gold, even right down to clothes for the family and other things?

    Something you need to understand, as the current world banking system was created by white Europeans, is that banks don’t like gold, and never have. Gold restrains a bank’s ability to create money out of nothing. Where did the RBI come up with the money to replace the old/counterfeit cash? Was it backed by gold/silver? (to my knowledge, NO currency is backed by gold nor silver today, like most were as of 100 years ago) Was it printed up Western-government-style? Paper money allows you (as the GOI or the banking class) to print up as much as you need to give yourself undue advantage (to make life easier for your people). Gold does not work that way. See, gold is hard to find, dangerous to dig out, and takes time to refine it before it can be made as a medium of exchange. That is the restriction that is important: you can only grow the money so fast over time, so that you don’t have inflation.

    You see, the paper money system was set up to create the ILLUSION that the paper money is real, backed by something. The effect is to make the people believe that their tax money goes towards the operation of the government, or that the government cannot function AT ALL without taxpayer money, when in fact, it is printing up money all this time and not telling the public about it. Why do you think gasoline has gone up from a few cents to 25 cents to a dollar and as high as $4 a gallon and back down? It is because of INFLATION. The money supply grows faster than the population is growing, and how does that happen when you are not mining gold fast enough to keep up with the money supply? The galling thing is that not only have they tricked the public into believing this, they have also taxed the public’s money that the government doesnt need (because it can print up/appropriate in Congress what it needs anyway) to reduce the public’s ability to conduct their lives as they wish. The illusion is set up to divert attention away from the fact that in a paper money system, absolutely nothing is needed from the public to make it run EXCEPT belief in the paper money. This way, not only can the government dictate the terms of money, but it can benefit itself at the expense of the public without them knowing it in the early decades and then openly in broad daylight, which the public cannot stop because they have been brainwashed and don’t know how to stop it. This is why civilizations collapse. That is what is destined for India.

    This is why you need to do away with the British-parliamentary system and reinstate an appropriate form of Indic/dharmic government. I say this because I know all too well how the western form of governance works, to the advantage of the banking class. NO ONE, especially westerners, can resist the temptation of printing money secretly to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else. NO ONE. By reinstating the Indic form of government, you can cut out ALL of this banking mess and return to the dharmic principles of commerce within the varṇa system.
    —————————–

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