BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya stated that Aadhaar is only proof of identity and residence but does not establish citizenship, noting that the Supreme Court ruling did not suggest that it should be used as a valid document for the Bihar SIR.
Bihar SIR row: The BJP on Sunday asserted that Aadhaar is not enough avail voting rights, and slammed the Opposition for spreading ‘propaganda’ after the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allow deleted voters in the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to submit their Aadhaar along with other documents.
In a statement, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya stated that Aadhaar is only proof of identity and residence but does not establish citizenship, noting that the Supreme Court ruling did not suggest that it should be used as a valid document for the SIR.
Malviya accused the Opposition of spreading propaganda over the issue, and cited the Representation of the People Act states that a person will be disqualified from registration in electoral roll if he is not a citizen of India, declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind or is disqualified under law relating to corrupt practices or offences in elections.
“Asking the Election Commission to include Aadhaar as a document for automatic voter enrolment would render Section 16 of the RP Act and the Aadhaar Act meaningless. In fact, this very bench, on August 12, held that Aadhaar is not a legal document to prove citizenship,” Malviya said, adding that the Aadhaar Act says the document only serves as proof of identity and residence, and does not establish citizenship.
The BJP IT cell head warned opposition parties that attributing things to the apex court could invite a contempt of court charge.
“The truth is simple: SIR is intact, Aadhaar alone cannot get you enrolled, dead, fake, Bangladeshi and Rohingya names will be removed and only Indian citizens will elect the next government – not foreigners,” he said.
Malviya also claimed that 65 lakh names removed from the draft voter roll in Bihar included fake, dead, and Bangladeshi and Rohingya names.
While the Supreme Court asked the list of deleted names to be published so that the affected persons can reapply, Malviya said only 84,305 objections have been filed so far, which is barely 1.3 per cent of the total deleted names. It is well below the standard margin of error, he said.
“Clearly, the ‘vote chori’ cry is manufactured,” the BJP leader added.
(With inputs from agencies)
