Why is The Move to Link Aadhaar to Voter ID Cards Contentious?

While linking Aadhaar with your voter ID may make life easier, several experts point serious concerns regarding it.

Image used for representation only.

(Photo:  Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

You know how every few weeks you get a notification on your phone about linking your PAN card to your Aadhaar card? Well, you may soon start getting similar messages about linking your voter ID with your Aadhaar number now as well.

Because on 20 December, the Union Cabinet passed the Elections Law (Amendment Bill) 2021, with certain electoral reforms, one of which allows the linking of voters IDs with Aadhaar.

There are a few other reforms too, including allowing first-time voters to have the chance to register four times a year instead of once; making the electoral law gender-neutral for service officers—where words like wife were replaced by spouse.

But in today’s episode, we will talk about the reform to link voter ID to Aadhaar because it caused an uproar in Parliament given how contentious the issue is and it passed without any discussion via a voice vote in just 10 minutes.

And, of course, while linking Aadhaar with your voter ID may make life easier to an extent, on the flip-side, many experts and activists pointed serious concerns regarding privacy and voters being excluded.

This concern of exclusion is legitimate because in 2015, when this idea was first gamed out by the Election Commission, about 55 lakh names were found to be deleted from the voter database of two states—Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. And with assembly elections in important states like Uttar Pradesh just around the corner, the timing of this bill also raises eyebrows.

So in today’s episode, we will go through why this move to link Aadhaar to voter ID is contentious and its possible impacts. And to help me break it down is The Quint’s legal editor, Vakasha Sachdev. Tune in!