Govt brings in bill to link Aadhaar to electoral rolls, Opposition against it

The opposition is up in arms against a bill on electoral reforms which seeks to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar.

The government introduced the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha on Monday,

The government has maintained that the linking of Aadhaar with the electoral rolls will weed out duplicacy.

But the opposition is no mood to accept the argument.

Demanding the rollback of the bill, Congress MP Manish Tewari said that Aadhaar Act does not allow for Aadhaar to be linked to electoral rolls.

Pointing out that Aadhaar only meant to be proof of residence, and not citizenship, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the provision will "potentially giving the vote to non-citizens".

"Aadhaar only meant to be proof of residence, it's not proof of citizenship. If you're in a position asking Aadhaar for voters, all you're getting is a document that reflects residence, not citizenship. You're potentially giving the vote to non-citizens," Tharoor said.

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

It also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar number from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll, and to identify registration of name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency".

At the same time, the amendment bill makes it clear that "no application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed".

Such people will be allowed to furnish other alternative documents as may be prescribed.