OPINION: Legislation to link Aadhaar, Voter ID will undermine free and fair polls

The hastily-passed bill in its current format cannot be accepted

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R The recently concluded winter session of Parliament saw the passage of The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill in both houses. The legislation would pave the way for the linkage of the electoral roll to Aadhaar numbers. Alongside this contentious provision, the new laws would also make the language of the existing Representation of the People Act, 1950 gender neutral, to benefit service voters.

Law Minister Kiran Rijiju, while introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha, described it as a necessary step to curb bogus voting. He also reminded the House that the changes were in line with the suggestions of the parliamentary standing committee. Widespread irregularities exist in electoral rolls across the country, owing to dubious verification processes, along with errors accumulated over time. The new laws would prevent the registration of the same person at different locations. The linked database could also facilitate the usage of technological tools to delete repetitive entries.

Shashi Tharoor, MP, pointed out that the 16-digit unique ID is only meant to be a proof of residence, not a proof of citizenship; as only citizens are allowed to vote, he questioned the sagacity of using this database to purify the electoral roll. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, warned that the bill would lead to mass disfranchisement.

The Election Commission of India had attempted to link Voter ID information with the Aadhaar database through the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) in March 2015. It had to be stopped in a few months as the Supreme Court in August 2015 disallowed the usage of Aadhaar for any purpose other than optionally availing government welfare schemes.

The Election Commission had by then already completed the linkage for over 30 crore voters. Just Andhra Pradesh and Telangana reportedly had over 55 lakh voters removed from the electoral roll. Many of them were eligible voters, deleted from the voters list without any prior notification. A large section among them had no means to address their grievances, or get re-enrolled. They could not cast their ballots during the state elections that were held in 2018. Past instances like these certainly justify current fears of possible mass disfranchisement.

The proposed linkage of the two IDs is to be on a voluntary basis, to ensure that the new legislation would be under the ambit of the previous Supreme Court judgments, mandating that Aadhaar enrolments remain optional, and that citizens are assured of their right to vote and to privacy.

The bill states that an application for the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll cannot be denied and that entries in the existing roll cannot be deleted for the inability of an individual to furnish Aadhaar details due to ‘such sufficient cause as may be prescribed’. With the causes undefined, this clause would give electoral registration officers arbitrary powers to accept, reject or delete entries, and would practically make the process non-voluntary. Paradoxically, voluntary linkage of the IDs, leaving out some voters, would also make the whole exercise of identifying multiple entries inefficient.

Not to be forgotten, the Data Protection Bill has not yet been passed in Parliament. However, the initial drafts available give the impression that government agencies are exempt from the purview of the proposed legislation. Such a scenario would give the government avenues to use the Aadhaar-Voter ID linked databases to sway elections by creating voter profiles, and influence voters through micro-targeted messaging. They could selectively redirect schemes and benefits based on electoral expediency. The combination of these bills in their current formats creates loopholes that could even undermine the secret ballot system.

The government has hastily passed a bill with gaping holes that could subvert free and fair elections. The opposition and civil societies should continue to raise their concerns, till the electoral institutions create requisite checks and guardrails that would guarantee the fundamental rights of the citizens.

Anil K. Antony is national co-coordinator of AICC social media and digital communications department