Electoral reforms bill gets LS nod as Oppn protests About the bill
NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the contentious Election Laws amendment bill by voice vote, barely hours after it was introduced by Union law minister Kiren Rijiju when it ran into stiff resistance from the opposition benches.
The bill proposes to allow Election Commission officials to seek Aadhaar details of registered voters and makes the language of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (the RP Act, 1950) gender neutral. The provisions related to the linking of Aadhaar and voter identity records became particularly controversial, with MPs saying it as a violation of Supreme Court orders and a threat to privacy, and could eventually lead to “mass disenfranchisement” of voters.
Introducing the bill, the law minister said allowing verification through Aadhaar will lead to the elimination of bogus voting, and slammed the opposition for not understanding the proposed new law. “They are opposing it unnecessarily,” Rijiju said. He cited findings of the standing committee on Law to justify the government’s decision.
“Appropriate actions for the purpose of linking Aadhaar card number with voter I-card to purify the electoral roll which is in larger interest of democratic polity,” the committee suggested last year. The recommendation was part of its report on Demands for Grants (2020-2021) of the Ministry of Law and Justice tabled in Parliament.
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday by Union law minister Kiren Rijiju
Leader of opposition and senior Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked for the Bill to be referred to a standing committee for analysis. “Linking of Adhaar numbers with the voter
ids will lead to mass disenfranchisement,” Chowdhury said.
Several other members of from across party lines also opposed the Bill, including Congress’s Manish Tewari and
Shashi Tharoor, BSP’s Pritesh Pandey, TMC’s Sougata Ray and RSP’s NK Premchandran.
Members also opposed the Bill on grounds of passage, arguing that they were not given the chance to propose amendments. “What is parliamentary democracy? What is the use of this debate,” said Premchandran.
“Aadhaar was only meant to be proof of residence, does not reflect any proof of citizenship,” Tharoor said.
The bill proposes an amendment of section 23 of the Representation of People Act, 1950, allowing the linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem to “curb the menace of multiple enrollment of the same person in different places”.
The government, in drafts and objectives section of the bill, said: “The electoral reform is an ongoing and continuous process.
MUMBAI: Equity benchmark Sensex plunged 1,190 points on Monday as concerns over the impact of surging Omicron cases across the world spooked investors, triggering an intense selloff in global equities. The 30-share index slumped 1,189.73 points or 2.90% to end at 55,822.01. Similarly, the NSE Nifty tanked 371 points or 2.18 % to 16,614.20. Tata
Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, sinking over 5%, followed by SBI, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and NTPCOn the other hand, HUL and Dr Reddy’s were the gainers.
According to experts, exploding Covid-19 cases, sustained selling by foreign institutional investors and slowing growth momentum in the developed economies have spooked markets the world over.
“Currently, selloff is due to rapid rise in FIIs selling triggered by hawkish world central banks’ policy, cautious view on Indian market due to high valuation compared to peers and drop in retail inflows,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.