The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, has been passed into law by both Houses of Parliament after being approved by the Rajya Sabha in a stormy session which saw Opposition MP’s walk out and TMC MP Derek O-Brien suspended from the house for the remainder of the Winter Session due to throwing down a copy of the rulebook.

The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday, and its stated aims is to eliminate voter fraud and duplication by linking Aadhar card to voter ID’s, amove that is being vociferously protested by opposition parties, which term this as an infringement of constitutional rights of citizens. Demanding the repeal of this Bill, opposition parties have said that linking voter ID’s to Aadhar will jeopardize people’s privacy.

Rejecting the demand for repeal, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has said that the various provisions of the Bill have been recommended by a Standing Committee, and that the Bill, now a law, will help in conducting fair elections.

The Central government has tried to assure that Aadhar data is safe and beynd misuse earlier as well, but incidents of data leaks have surfaced in the past too, although the Centre has always sought to wash it hands off it.

Go News has reported earlier how Aadhar data, despite being confidential has been made public in earlier instances, including a leak from the President’s office itself which is bound to trigger questions regarding the safety and reliability of the whole process of Aadhar registration and how safe one’s data really is. Therefore, there are apprehensions that the move to link voter IDs with Aadhar cards will become another way for citizens’ privacy to be invaded.