Poonam Sharma
Today, the Election Commission of India released a huge update: they’re full-on going ahead and connecting Aadhaar cards to other photo IDs, such as voter ID cards. They’ve already met with their officials and are speaking with the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) about how to make this possible. This is all about enhancing the validity of voter IDs and stopping things like illegal migration and false voting.
Here’s the catch, though: years back, the Election Commission had made a vow. They assured that there would be no compulsion to connect the Aadhaar card with the voter ID if one did not wish to do so. They gave this assurance to the Supreme Court, so it cannot be discarded easily. The Election Commission must maintain that pledge while ensuring the electoral process remains legitimate under Article 326, which demands authenticity of electoral rolls as well as verification of voters.
Let’s discuss now what this means in terms of the bigger picture. The timing here is interesting. Also in the offing is the “Foreigners Bill” aimed at illegal immigration. And combining those two concepts—to tie Aadhaar with the voter ID, to top that by attacking illegal immigrants—you just kind of can’t help but make that correlation, that connection. It would feel like it is a ploy so you see greater vetting, particularly around verifying people that are being placed as voters. There’s always been discourse among there have been claims by population ballooning, or population blowing up in parts of society. It matters quite a lot. Because if the population in a community rises quite dramatically within a short amount of time, you begin questioning things. Is that natural population growth? Or is something strange occurring?
Take the case of Jammu and Kashmir, for instance. The population of Kashmir had a sharp surge in 2011. It didn’t correspond to the patterns of natural growth, and Jammu-based political parties disagreed with it. They even submitted petitions during the delimitation process to highlight that the population numbers didn’t tally. But guess what? Due to political compromise, no agreement was made, and delimitation was postponed. So, Kashmir’s population figures didn’t tally with the reality of the situation. The figures still don’t tally, and Jammu’s population is far greater than Kashmir’s.
Now, let’s come back to Aadhaar cards and voter IDs. The intention is to purify the system. Fake IDs have been used by people to cast their vote in many places for years. This has been a huge problem, particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where individuals have learned to utilize their Aadhaar to vote in more than one place. In Assam, for example, the fake Aadhaar card and voter ID situation became so out of hand that it led to chaos. So, by connecting Aadhaar cards to voter IDs, the Election Commission can now cross-check and determine whether a person is using multiple IDs or attempting to manipulate the system.
But the issue is, not everyone is keen on the idea of connecting their Aadhaar with their voter ID. There’s a section of the population who may not necessarily want to share their Aadhaar information for reasons best known to them. So, who takes care of that? That’s where the problem starts. It’s a tricky one, and even individuals like Rahul Gandhi have spoken up, particularly about how Aadhaar will be used to authenticate voter IDs. In Maharashtra, he said that Aadhaar being linked to voter IDs would clean up the electoral process and avoid fraud.
So what does this imply for the future? If all goes well, this has the potential to be a massive cutback in fraudulent voter IDs. Aadhaar cards will serve as a good deterrent on voter legitimacy. Fake IDs will no longer be able to get away, and voter fraud will be much more difficult to execute. If so, it could make a tremendous difference in the population of specific communities. It’s estimated that approximately 2,00,00,000 people might be impacted by this, due to individuals who were voting with more than one ID or who were registered under false circumstances.
But naturally, this won’t be without its problems. People will still resist, and there will always be backlash. Individuals who don’t wish to associate their Aadhaar or are concerned with privacy may make it complicated. And although it’s a good step toward being transparent and curbing fraud, the execution will be difficult. But in general, this attempt can set the stage for a cleaner, more legitimate election process.
In conclusion, this Aadhaar and voter ID linking project is a component of a larger effort to make our electoral process untainted and to eliminate the fraud and counterfeit IDs that have been compromising the system over the years. Though there are still obstacles to be removed, notably the resistance from some sections of society, the ultimate outcome could be an electoral system that’s far more secure and valid. If this succeeds as expected, then we may actually experience less voter fraud and a cleaner elections process in India.
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