By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: A group of 104 former bureaucrats and diplomats in an open statement has expressed strong reservations against the move of the Central government to link the electoral roll with the Aadhaar eco-system. They argue it may jeoparidise the independence of the Election Commission of India.
The group, stating it is apolitical, is apprehensive that passage of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to utilise the Aadhaar database for voter cards, besides bringing in four qualifying dates on quarterly basis for entry in the electoral roll.
“The requirement of Aadhaar verification, even if voluntary, from a prospective or registered voter implies the superimposition of a government-issued identity card for identity and address verification that could seriously undermine the independence and integrity of the ECI and cast doubts on the fairness of the entire electoral process,” stated the statement issued by the former officials of the Central and the state governments, including the likes of Anita Agnihotri, Salahuddin Ahmad, V S Ailawadi, S P Ambrose.
They argued that while voter ID is issued on the basis of citizenship, Aadhaar is issued on the basis of identity, without proof of citizenship being required.
“Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, is clear that Aadhaar may not be used as proof of address, age, gender, citizenship or relationship. Even if it is argued that voter IDs may be wrongly issued to non-citizens, the verification by Aadhaar in no way solves this vexing problem; in fact, it is quite likely that even non-citizens may be registered as voters if Aadhaar is used as the only proof,” said the group.
Unlike Aadhaar enrolments, which need only production of existing documents, voter IDs are based on physical verification and ‘house visits’ by a Block Level Officer, besides being certified by the Electoral Registration Officer, which is not a case with Aadhaar.
It can’t be ruled out that with the linkage of Aadhaar to voter IDs, and in the absence of physical verification by poll authorities, efforts may be made to manipulate electoral rolls by getting persons registered as voters in constituencies where they don’t reside, they added.
