The Lok Sabha has approved the bill to propose linking the Aadhaar number with the Voter ID card. On Monday, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the bill, which the House approved amid the uproar. As per the Election Law Amendment Bill, the officers preparing the voter list of 2021 will have the right to ask for the Aadhar card from the person concerned.
However, in this bill, giving the Aadhar card number has been kept optional. The government says that by linking the Aadhar card with the voter ID, the voters will be able to verify, and the voter list cannot be tampered.
The cabinet had approved the bill last Wednesday. Introducing the bill, Law Minister Rijiju said that linking Aadhaar and voter cards will check fake voters. Rijiju said that the arguments given by the members for opposing it are an attempt to misrepresent the Supreme Court’s decision. This is in line with the decision of the top court, he claimed.
The introduction of this bill was opposed by Trinamool Congress, Congress, BSP and Owaisi’s party AIMIM. Congress said that this bill should be presented before the Standing Committee.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that an attempt is being made to weaken an independent and constitutional institution like the Election Commission through this bill. He said that there is also a possibility of deleting the names of many voters in future due to the Aadhaar-Voter card linking.
However, the government has sufficient numbers of force in both the houses of the Parliament. But with the ongoing standoff between the ruling and opposition parties, the Electoral Reform Bill may also add a new chapter of differences.
Meanwhile, the government is also preparing to introduce a bill to increase the age of marriage of girls to 21 years in Parliament in the same session. Congress has already announced its opposition to this bill.