Aadhaar-Voter ID linking: They don’t want it now, but opposition parties have demanded this in the past

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The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 has been passed in the Lok Sabha, and is being discussed in the Rajya Sabha. This bill aims at linking a person’s Aadhaar credentials with the electoral process.

The 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.

The government argued that this will safeguard the electoral process and stop bogus voting. However, the opposition cited the possible misuse of the information and the right to privacy.

Leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded the Bill be sent to the standing committee. Meanwhile, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation.

Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters.

However, it’s interesting to note that some of the parties opposing the bill now had a different opinion earlier.

For example, in 2018, as per a Times of India report, a delegation of opposition Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh met the Chief Election Commissioner demanding a free and fair poll. They were concerned about the sudden rise in the number of voters in certain constituencies. One of the suggestions given during the meeting was to link Aadhaar with the Voter ID.

In another similar instance reported by the Times of India, during the legislative council’s monsoon meeting in Maharashtra in 2019, an NCP legislator suggested that the Voter ID should be linked to Aadhaar to avoid the case of missing names. Then state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had accepted the proposal to avoid bogus voting.

The opposition might be changing tactics now, but they have been on the other side of the table in the past.