New Delhi, April 01: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked people to not link Aadhaar with their voter ID. Prasad said if linking of Aadhaar with Voter ID card made mandatory, those opposing Aadhaar would accuse the government of snooping on everyone. However, the minister clarified that it was his personal opinion.
Speaking at an interactive event organised by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka unit, Prasad said that both the Aadhaar and the voter ID card served different purposes with the latter having more of personal information. “Both of them (Aadhaar and voter ID) operate in different fields.You go to cast your vote…if you show your Aadhaar card, you will not be allowed to cast your vote unless you show your voter ID card.” he was quoted as saying.
He further explained, “The card has been linked with the web portal of the Election Commission of India and you will get election-related information such as your polling booth and its address. Aadhaar is not related to this.”
Although Prasad didn’t support the idea of Aadhar being linked to one’s voter ID, he maintained that linking of Aadhaar with an individual’s bank account was necessary to maintain transparency. He said that through this system benefits of welfare schemes directly reached one’s bank accounts. He said that Aadhaar did not have any legal backing during UPA government, whereas there is a separate law in the NDA regime for it.
Backing the need of Aadhaar, Prasad also defended it when questions of privacy and data breach crept in. He said that Aadhaar is the digital identity of an individual that gives a timeline of events undertaken and that there is foolproof security maintained by the government in order to respect a person’s privacy. He further added that the government would take strict measures against anybody abusing data which was strictly for security purposes.