The opposition strongly protested the bill and called for a review, saying tying Aadhaar to voting cards would allow non-citizens to vote.
New Delhi: Changes to the electoral law, including the possibility of linking Aadhaar to voter ID cards, are scheduled for debate on Rajya Sabha today. The opposition raising a strong protest and calling for a revision, the government detailed its arguments in a note.
This is why the electoral laws (amendments) Bill 2021 are necessary, according to “government sources”:
- In a presentation to BJP lawmakers this morning, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said all parties, including Trinamool, which criticized the bill, were part of the standing committee where these recommendations were made.
- The “Electoral Law (Amendment) Bill 2021” incorporates various electoral reforms which have been under discussion for some time.
- Registration on the electoral rolls is carried out on the basis of a request from a person authorized to be registered as a voter.
- This bill includes a provision that the new applicant can voluntarily provide the Aadhaar number with the application for identity purposes.
- No application will be rejected as the Aadhaar number was not provided.
- The Aadhaar connection with the electoral roll will solve one of the main problems of managing electoral databases which is a multiple inscription of the same person in different places.
- This may be due to the frequent change of residence of voters and registration for the new office without canceling the previous registration.
- This eliminates the possibility that voters whose names appear on more than one voters list or sometimes more than once on the same voters list.
- Once the Aadhaar connection is obtained, the voters list data system will immediately notify you of the existence of previous registrations whenever someone requests a new registration.
- This will go a long way in cleaning up the voters lists. It will also facilitate voter registration where they “normally” reside.
