Electoral Reform: Linking Electoral Rolls with Andhra - Pros and Cons

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Electoral Reform: Linking Electoral Rolls with Andhra - Pros and Cons

The Rajya Sabha Tuesday passed The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to enable the linking of electoral rolls with Aadhar. The government’s logic is that  linking the two will help identify duplicate voters, purge the electoral rolls of multiple enrolments, and help put an end to the practice of fraudulent voting. It will also prevent disenfranchisement of migrants who move from one place to another. 

 

Linkage voluntary or mandatory - unclear

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated in Parliament that the scheme “is voluntary… not compulsory or mandatory”. There is however, writes The Indian Express  “a legitimate concern that, in practice, the line between voluntary and mandatory may be breached. This is because the government will presumably define the ‘sufficient cause’ on which basis a person chooses not to opt for the linkage…..”

The scope of Aadhaar or the unique identification architecture, has expanded over the years - from the filing of income tax returns to Covid vaccines now. It has also been used effectively in plugging leaks in an array of social welfare schemes. “But the benefits that stem from this linkage will depend on the seamless integration and effective working of systems.”

 

Perils of linking  Aadhar with voter ID

Although reforms are needed, Subhashis Banerjee (with the computer science department, Ashoka University) and Subodh Sharma (with the Computer Science and Engineering department, IIT Delhi)  are of the opinion that “the move appears to be ill-advised for several reasons.

Aadhar not a citizenship proof: “First, Aadhaar is not meant to be a citizenship proof but only a digital identity for all residents. Residence of 182 days can make even a non-citizen eligible for an Aadhaar ID.”

Aadhar not an address proof: Second “Aadhaar was only meant to be an identity proof but not an address proof. In contrast, the RER (Registration of Electors Rules) clearly stipulates address to be a key index for electoral rolls…..

Possibility of Aadhaar deduplication: “Third, there are no publicly available audit reports either on the efficacy of Aadhaar deduplication or on the authenticity of the Aadhaar database…….Using Aadhaar to clean the electoral rolls is fraught with the risk of disenfranchisement, especially of the marginalised communities…….

Potential conflict of interest: “Fourth, and most importantly, maintenance of the voters’ lists is a primary responsibility of the ECI (Election Commission of India), which is an independent constitutional body, whereas Aadhaar is a government instrument….. under government control. Since the ECI has no control on either enrolment or deduplication in Aadhaar, it appears inappropriate — and a potential conflict of interest — to use Aadhaar for electoral rolls. In particular, since Aadhaar is directly used for disbursal of welfare and direct benefit transfers, linking it with voter ID may provide a direct method for the government to influence and manipulate voters……..

Possibility of profiling and targeting of voters: “Finally, Aadhaar is a ubiquitous ID that is used in a variety of applications. Linking it with the voter ID will open up avenues for profiling and targeting of voters……..While profiling using public data is not illegal according to current laws, both the electorate and Parliament need to clearly understand the risks of such profiling.”

Therefore, in view of the above, the authors conclude  that “with the possibility of digital processing of electoral data, the risks associated with such complete transparency have increased manifold. Yet, there are several modern techniques from cryptography and computer science that may help mitigate the risks by enabling both privacy and public auditability. An electoral reforms bill at the onset of 2022 needed to explore and address these issues head-on."


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