Linking Aadhaar with Voter ID cards will solve the problem of a “huge number of duplicate voters” in the country and “purify” the election database, says former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) HS Brahma who first mooted the idea in 2012.
Brahma told News18 he had proposed this step in 2012 as the Election Commissioner, during his 2010-2015 tenure before becoming the Chief Election Commissioner. “This will ensure there are no duplicate Voter ID Cards and will help people when they shift cities and want to cast their vote there. I don’t think the privacy issue is a such a huge problem that we cannot solve. Precautions can be built in,” Brahma told News18.
The Elections Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is set to be introduced in Parliament today after being approved by the Cabinet last week. It proposes an amendment in the existing law to allow linking of Voter IDs with Aadhaar data to “curb the menace of multiple enrollment of the same person in different places”. Linking voter ID with Aadhaar is voluntary as the amendment bill says no one will be denied entry into electoral rolls if they don’t possess an Aadhaar card.
“In India, we have a problem of huge number of duplicate voters. In 2012, I proposed that we link the Voter ID card with the Aadhaar card so that we remove the duplicate cards. A lot of people are there whose names are found at different places. Like I belong to Assam, I may have a card in Delhi, I may have a card in Telangana (as I belong to Andhra cadre). So, to purify our voter ID card (database), I said link it to the Aadhaar card,” Brahma told News18.
The former CEC also said there must be a system that if one moves cities, one can easily convert their Voter ID card as an Aadhaar is linked to it. “Imagine you are in Delhi and tomorrow you are shifted to Bengaluru, then you have a problem to shift Voter ID card and have to apply again. It becomes a big effort on part of the voter to get an ID card,” Brahma said. He also pointed out that only 60% of the 135 crore Indians were eligible voters with Voter ID cards but Aadhaar database is bigger.
“Aadhaar cards are applicable for everyone of all ages,” he added.
Concerns of data privacy and misuse of electoral data have been raised by activists over the proposed linking of Voter ID cards with Aadhaar. Brahma, however, said this process had already started in his tenure. “We can always take precautions, so that certain information is not put in public domain and will remain secret. This can be done technically. You can keep certain information encrypted. This small issue can be taken care of. It is not such a huge problem that this country cannot solve,” Brahma said.
Former UIDAI chief Ajay Bhushan Pandey had also echoed similar views, terming the step as a “win-win for both the voter and the Election Commission”.
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