Why linking Aadhaar with voter ID is a bad idea.

"If the govt has guts, they should first link Aadhar with voter ID", reads one of the comments on Times of India article. The article was about linking Aadhar with driving license. I've often received this kind of comments and suggestions in WhatsApp and Facebook from various people. These people are to a large extent apolitical and so their views need to be considered seriously. Nevertheless, it is a very bad idea to think of linking Aadhar with voter ID.

Election commission of India is an autonomous body and their main objective is to conduct a free and fair election and declare the results. To ensure this, they have to be independent of govt of India, but for financial reasons. On the other hand, Govt of India have a say in policy issues and are also accountable. Govt can have the policy to reduce the burden of poor by providing various subsidies. To achieve this, they may use any means of technology including Aadhar.

Govt can have the policy to keep a check on tax sheets. For this, they may ask us to link our bank accounts with Aadhar. Zero tolerance for terrorism is one of the key policies of the govt for which they may want us to link mobile numbers with Aadhar. However, conducting free and fair election comes under the purview of the election commission. Govt has no role to play here.

It is even worse if for argument sake govt and election commission agrees to link the two. Conducting election will come under direct control of govt, which is very bad for our democracy. The only feasible solution is Election commission has to add the biometric feature to voter ID independently and maintain it as well. But this solution is very expensive and will only become an additional burden to taxpayers.