NEW DELHI: Asserting that Supreme Court’s order does not designate Aadhaar as valid address proof for voter enrolment, BJP on Sunday accused opposition of persisting with ‘false propaganda’ over voters excluded during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls.”Aadhaar is only proof of identity and residence, and it does not establish citizenship,” BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said, adding that nowhere in the judgment did the apex court even suggest that it should be used as a valid document for SIR.”Opposition is spreading falsehoods over the issue,” he said, adding that opposition’s claim that the top court has asked “Aadhaar ID to be treated as a basis for determining citizenship is wrong”. “Attributing to Supreme Court what it has not said is contempt of court,” he said in a swipe at opposition parties.The BJP functionary emphasised that Representation of the People Act states that a person will be disqualified from registration in the electoral roll if he is not found to be a citizen of India and added that “Aadhaar can never be the basis for determining someone’s eligibility”. Aadhaar Act says that it is only proof of identity and residence and does not establish citizenship. “Asking Election Commission (EC) to include Aadhaar as a document for automatic voter enrolment would render Section 16 of Representation of the People Act and Aadhaar Act meaningless. In fact, SC, on Aug 12, held that Aadhaar is not a legal document to prove citizenship,” he added.”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 govt, not foreigners,” Malviya said.He claimed that 65 lakh names removed from the draft voter roll in Bihar included fake, dead, and Bangladeshi and Rohingya names. While Supreme Court had asked for 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% of total deleted names.It is well below the standard margin of error, he said. “Clearly, the ‘vote chori’ slogan is manufactured,” he said, adding that the opposition functionaries have been ‘exposed’ yet again.
