‘Deeply sinister’: Rahul Gandhi on minister’s voter ID for panchayati raj benefits announcement

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that a “deeply sinister plot” was underway after Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh announced that voter ID cards, not Aadhaar, will be the basis for availing benefits under panchayati raj schemes.

Singh had said on October 30 that organisations issuing Aadhaar “are available in every locality now” and can create the identification card “for anyone within five minutes”. Therefore, Singh said, “Aadhaar won’t be the basis [for identifying beneficiaries]”.

Instead, beneficiaries will need to provide their biometric data and their Elector’s Photo Identity Card, or voter ID number, the Union panchayati raj minister said.

It was unclear what benefits Singh was referring to. But the comments came while talking about the new Pradhan Mantri Viksit Gram Swaraj Yojana, which replaces the Rashtriya Gram Swarajya Abhiyan. The new scheme is aimed at strengthening gram panchayats as the authorities for “integrated and participatory development planning”.

The announcement came amid the Opposition, activists and citizens’ groups raising concerns about how voters were being deleted during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, alleging that 13 crore electors had been removed in states where the exercise had taken place.

On Friday, Gandhi said that the names being left off the revised voter rolls were of citizens angry at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

“The voter list...

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