The Centre has introduced yet another bill to link the voter ID ( electoral rolls) to the Aadhar card stating that it will prevent duplicacy and fraudulent practices. The opposition has heavily criticized the bill. Here is all that went down in the Lok Sabha this morning.
Law Minister Kiren Rijju introduced the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 citing that the bill allows electoral registration officers to seek Aadhar number of people who want to register as voters, ‘to establish the identity. The bill will amend The Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951.
It will also allow the electoral registration officers to demand Aadhar numbers from people who are already included in the electoral roll for authentication of entries and to identity registration of the name of the same person included in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.
While the bill seems to be flexible and made it clear that no one will be denied the inclusion of name in the electoral roll and no entry would be deleted in case of an inability of a person to provide the Aadhar number due to a cause as may be prescribed.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, while opposing the bill said that Aadhar is not meant for proof of citizenship but only as a proof of residence. He further stated, “ If you are in a position asking for Aadhar for voters, all you are getting is a document that reflects residence, not citizenship. You are potentially giving the vote to non-citizens.”
The opposition made it clear that the Aadhar act never allowed for the linking to the electoral rolls and the amendment bill should therefore be rolled back.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill stated that the linking is meant ‘to curb the menace of multiple enrolments of the same person in different places. The amendment will also allow “four” qualifying dates for the registration of voters. Right now, people turning 18 before or on January 1 can register as voters only on January 1. The proposed bill will allow “the 1st day of January, 1st day of April, 1st day of July and 1st day of October in a calendar year” to be the qualifying dates for the registration of voters. It will also allow the elections to become gender-neutral for service voters.
While there are prevalent fraudulent practices in our voting system, proposing that the Aadhar should be linked to the rolls doesn’t seem like a good solution considering the aadhar card itself has issues relating to violations of the right to privacy, so making it mandatory for citizens is unfair to the people. If the whole process is made transparent and the citizens are aware of the consequences of the whole process, then only would it be justified that the government moves ahead with it. Every law looks great with the pros outweighing the cons when it is presented. But it is the implementation of the law which proves if it was right for the citizens or not.