Kiren Rijiju is the Union Law Minister
New Delhi:
The linking of Aadhaar cards and voter cards will be “voluntary and optional”, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told NDTV on Tuesday, amid protests against the Election Law (Amendment) Bill ) is controversial and the equally controversial way in which it passed Congress.
“Linking a voter ID card to Aadhaar will be voluntary and optional. Even if a citizen does not have an Aadhaar card, his or her name will not be removed from the voter list. If you are over 18 and you are on the electoral roll … then you are a voter,” Mr. Rijiju told NDTV.
“The election bill is necessary for a clean, tidy election process… Right now, a voter is registered on the voter rolls in three or four places. The removal of fake voters. is very important,” said the minister.
“The opposition’s arguments are completely false … they have no basis,” he insisted.
Yesterday, Mr. Rijiju also opposed the bill, telling the ANI news agency that the opposition had been asked to join and voice their opinion in the discussion, but instead they had created chaos. chaos.
However, the opposition leaders angrily criticized the government for the manner in which the Electoral Bill (Amendment) was passed – in Lok Sabha on Monday night and in Rajya Sabha today – in a matter of hours. and without any truth. debate about possible errors.
MP Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, said the Election Bill was passed without “discussion or debate”; he called it “a mockery of our democracy”.
Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien has been suspended for the remainder of the winter session after he allegedly threw rule books at President Rajya Sabha during protests over the bill.
Speaking to NDTV shortly afterwards, Mr O’Brien repeatedly highlighted how this bill (and other bills in the past) had been overturned in front of opposition MPs, and flagged it as “” murdered Parliament”.
In the previous Rajya Sabha, Mr O’Brien cited the rule book to argue that the bill was being passed without enough notice to the leaders of the opposition parties.
Harivansh Narayan Singh, Chairman at the time, said shorter notice was allowed under the rules.
The Elections Act (Amendment) Bill allows election registration officers to search for Aadhaar numbers of people who wish to register as voters “for the purpose of establishing identity”.
As a result, the possibility of the electors having their names appear more than once can be ruled out, government sources told PTI news agency. This will help “clean up” the list of voters and facilitate voter registration at locations where they are ‘permanent’, the sources added.
The bill also seeks to introduce sexist statutes by replacing the term ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’ to allow husbands of serving voters to cast ballots from their wives’ stations.
It also offers four eligibility dates – January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 – in a year for voters to register, instead of a single eligibility date – the January 1.
With input from ANI, PTI
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