Rajya Sabha passes Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, opposition walkout

The Bill was moved Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju for consideration and passing, a day after it was passed by the Lok Sabha.

The opposition parties, including the CPI-M and TMC, had moved five amendments, to refer the bill to a select committee, which were rejected by voice vote.

Members of the BJP, Janata Dal-U, Biju Janata Dal, YSR Congress Party, and the Tamil Maanila Congress supported the bill, while the Congress party and CPI-M, rejected the bill.

Members supporting the bill, including Sushil Modi of the BJP, said the bill would prevent bogus voting, and impersonation, and was very much needed.

However, the opposition said the Bill would disenfranchise lakhs of poor people who do not have Aadhar cards, and termed the bill undemocratic.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh steered the House proceedings amid loud protests and slogan shouting by the Opposition members, many of who including TMC’s Derek O’Brien raised points of order to protest the manner of tabling of the bill.

Derek O’Brien, raising a point of order, said the bill was passed at 3 pm the day before in the lower house and demanded that it not be listed in the House today, but the Deputy Chair refused to listen.

Anand Sharma of the Congress said that though he is a member of the Business Advisory Committee, he had not received any notice to be a part of it for studying the bill yesterday.

Five amendments were moved by John Brittas of the CPIM, Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool, Tiruchi Siva of the DMK, Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress, to refer the bill to a Select Committee.

The Deputy Chair told Derek O’Brien that his notice demanding the bill be referred to a Select Committee was declined as he had not provided the terms of order for appointment of a select committee.

Minister Kiren Rijiju, speaking on the Bill, to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, said it had been deliberated for long and was according to the Constitution.

He said the Bill will allow those over 18 years to get their voter ID Cards made on four occasions through the year unlike earlier, when they would have to wait till January 1 of each year to register as voters.

The Bill has also given permission to the Election Commission to acquire premises for voting after dates of polling are announced.

He said there is no basis for opposing the bill. “The Election Commission and the Indian Government have discussed the bill a number of times.” He said the ECI was concerned at the lack of transparency in the electoral rolls and there was no way of deleting the bogus voter names or duplicate names in the rolls.

“The elections should be transparent, and this cannot happen unless the electoral rolls are transparent. If we are genuine voters why should we object to the Bill, only those who resort to bogus votes will object,” Rijiju said, in a jibe at the Opposition.

“The whole country has welcomed the bill to remove bogus voter names…and the genuine voters will welcome the bill,” he said.

Referring to the Puttuswamy case in the Supreme Court, he said the apex court had ruled that no one should be registered in more than one constituency.

He also said that the Aadhar card would be linked to the voter ID card, only for the data for ID and age of the voter, and the data of the person would be kept securely with the Aadhar data base.

He also said the parliamentary standing committee had strongly recommended that Aadhar be linked to the Voter ID card, and that Opposition members were also part of the committee, and asked why the same Opposition members were opposing the bill today.

He termed the Bill revolutionary.

John Brittas whose amendment to refer the bill to a Select Committee was defeated by voice vote wanted division of the House.

The Deputy Chair said he was for division, but wanted order in the Hose as Opposition members were moving around with placards and disrupting the proceedings.

The Deputy Chair put the amendments moved by the Opposition to voice vote, which were defeated, upon which the Opposition members after protesting loudly walked out.

The bill was then passed by the House.