Govt rejects concerns, says reforms are need of the hour

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday defended the Election Law Amendment bill, rejected various concerns surrounding it, and pointed to the demand, in the past, by various political parties, including the Congress, for linking Aadhaar to the Voter ID, even as opposition parties argued that the decision would disenfranchise electors, put critical data at risk of breach by non-state actors and lead to voter profiling.

The bill proposes to voluntarily link Aadhaar data to electoral rolls and make the language of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (the RP Act, 1950) gender neutral, with the former provision being particularly controversial, with opposition leaders saying it will lead to “mass disenfranchisement”. It was passed by the Rajya Sabha a day after it cleared the Lok Sabha amidst loud protests and demands for a division, and will come into effect as law once it gets the President’s approval.

Government officials asserted that the Election Laws (Amendment) bill 2021 incorporates various electoral reforms which have been discussed for a long time. “Registration in electoral roll is done based on an application by a person who is eligible to be registered as a voter. This bill has a provision whereby the new applicant may voluntarily provide Aadhaar number along with the application for the purpose of identity. No application will be rejected on the grounds that Aadhaar number has not been provided,” a government official said on condition of anonymity. “Aadhaar linking with electoral roll will solve one of the major problems in electoral database management which is multiple enrolment of the same person at different places.”

The official also referenced an Election Commission press release from 27 August, 2018, which said that “political parties urged the Commission to link Aadhaar numbers with electors’ detail for better electoral roll management”.a second official pointed to news reports , also from 2018, that said that representatives from the Congress’ unit in Madhya Pradesh met the chief election commissioner and sought a re-verification of the electoral roll in the state by linking Aadhaar numbers to Voter IDS. That demand came months before the state went to polls. the privacy of such critical data?” He added that the linkage would open the ecosystem to a possibility of a data breach by any agency or non-state actors, a contention that Biju Janata Dal MP Amar Patnaik concurred with.

AADHAAR LINKING WITH ELECTORAL ROLL WILL SOLVE ONE OF THE MAJOR PROBLEMS IN DATABASE MANAGEMENT, AN OFFICIAL SAID