On Monday, the Lok Sabha passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, through voice-vote amid uproar from the opposition parties, who are asking the government to take it back and send it to a Standing Committee. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Bill will make the election process “more credible” and make the exercise “voluntary”.
What Does The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Say?
- It aims to link the electoral rolls with Aadhaar cards to establish identity.
- The EC officers will be allowed to ask for Aadhaar numbers from persons already included in the electoral rolls as well as for the registration of new voters.
- According to the Bill, different sections of the Representation of People Act of 1950 and 1951 will be amended.
- There will be four qualifying dates. As of now, January 1 of every year is the qualifying date.
- The word “wife” will be replaced with “spouse” to have gender neutrality.
Why Linking Voter ID With Aadhaar Card Can Lead To Disenfranchisement And Infringement Of Privacy
- If the government is doing this to remove “fraud voters” and stop “bogus voting”, then the government is not only raising doubts on the Election Commission’s (EC) credibility but also BJP’s own electoral success in previous elections.
- The EC is an independent institution that ensures “free and fair” elections in the country. The government must not mix the electoral process with UIDAI, which is a statutory body under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), GOI.
- It violates the Supreme Court judgement of 2015, wherein it passed an order to limit the use of the Aadhaar card for any purpose other than the PDS, cooking oil and LPG distribution scheme.
- There’s a fear of mass disfranchisement. When the EC started this linking process in 2015, about 55 lakh voters were deleted from the electoral rolls of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Also, currently, people are facing difficulties to get the benefits of various government schemes because of Aadhaar. People would face the same problem in the electoral process as well.
- Absence of Data Protection Law: Since Aadhaar has our personal data, linking it to the EC database raises the concern of misuse of personal data by political parties if leaked. For example, the Aadhaar data of 7.8 crore voters of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was leaked in 2019 and found in possession of a company linked to a political party. UIDAI’s record in maintaining privacy and keeping our data secured is poor as Aadhaar data has been breached many times.
- The committee that drafted the Personal Data Protection Bill, called it “dangerous” to link Voter ID with Aadhaar.
- Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship. It was meant to be a proof of residence. In India, only citizens of our country are allowed to vote.
- If the government is aiming to bring transparency in the electoral process, then it should also make the details of the Electoral Bonds that political parties receive from corporates and “unknown sources” transparent.
- Someone can raise a query: if the government says that the linking of electoral rolls with a person’s Aadhaar is “voluntary“, then why is there a problem? Initially, Aadhaar itself also started as a “voluntary” exercise. Even today, the government maintains that Aadhaar is voluntary, but it has made Aadhaar “mandatory” for availing most of the government schemes.
- Lastly, given the manner in which the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha (in barely 26 minutes) despite the opposition demanding it to be sent to a Standing Committee, it looks like it is being rushed in such a way keeping in mind the elections in five states in 2022. It should obviously raise eyebrows.