The lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Aadhaar Bill after rejecting five amendments introduced in the Rajya Sabha by former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, who along with other Opposition members objected to the Centre’s move to treat it as a Money Bill. The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 aims at better targeting of subsidies through the Aadhaar unique identity number.
Before the Bill could be discussed and introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, CPI(M) member Sitaram Yechury sought to know why the Government was in “haste” to legislate when a five-member Bench of Supreme Court is seized of the matter.
Maintaining that the Supreme Court was looking at “theoretical” questions relating to the right of privacy, Jaitley said the present law has much tighter norms to protect the privacy of individual as compared to the one framed by the UPA Government. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said “the Bill is transmitted by the lok Sabha” and thus he cannot reject the Bill and this House is bound to consider it.
Moments before it was adjourned for more than a month-long recess for scrutiny of Budget, the lok Sabha adopted the Aadhaar Bill by a voice vote after rejecting the five amendments made by the Upper House earlier in the evening.
Armed with the Speaker’s decision that it was a Money Bill, the Government rushed it through the Rajya Sabha, which cannot amend it but only make recommendations for amendment to the lok Sabha. Once the lok Sabha passes a Money Bill with or without amendments recommended by the Rajya Sabha, it is deemed to have been passed by both the Houses.
Showing urgency in getting the law through, the Government, which enjoys a comfortable majority in the lok Sabha, brought the measure to the lower House within an hour of being returned by the Rajya Sabha.
Jaitley, who moved the Bill and piloted them in both the Houses, also turned down Opposition’s argument that Parliament cannot legislate since the matter is before Supreme Court. Parliament cannot abdicate its duty under the Constitution which clearly separates powers among various institutions, he said.
The lok Sabha rejected the amendments proposed by the Rajya Sabha by a voice vote amid walkout by Opposition parties — including the Trinamool Congress, the BJD and the CPI(M). Congress members were conspicuous by their absence.
Earlier the Rajya Sabha saw an animated debate over why it was brought as a Money Bill, with a number of Opposition members also raising concern over privacy and national security on the biometric data of Indians so collected through the scheme.
Giving reasons for not accepting the amendments, Jaitley said, “These amendments have dangerous consequences as they gave wide power to the Government to share information.” Ramesh wanted the words ‘national security’ to be replaced by “public emergency and public safety” for sharing the bio-metric details.
Jaitley said while “national security” is a defined phrase and is mentioned in the Constitution, terms public emergency and public safety can be subject to wide interpretation. He said he has tightened the provision envisaged in the UPA Bill with regard to protecting the privacy of individuals.
Taking a dig at the CPI(M), which walked out of the House, he said the left party has entered into relationship in West Bengal “but don’t kill youth Congress leader in Kerala... You are romancing in West Bengal and murdering each other in Kerala.”
Opposition members -- including Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Jairam Ramesh (Congress), Naresh Agrawal (SP) and KC Tyagi (JD-U) among others -- opposed the Government’s decision to label the Aadhaar Bill as a Money Bill. Members of the BSP, the TMC and the BJD also walked out of the House raising objections on several issues concerning the measure.
Ramesh said that Jaitley, in his attempt to justify the decision to treat Aadhaar Bill as ‘Money Bill’, had “misled” the House by claiming that in the past two Bills, one on Juvenile Justice and another on African Development Bank, had been brought as Money Bill. Jaitley then told the House that his source was lok Sabha website itself.
While Ramesh said the information on the lok Sabha website was “wrong”, Jaitley said it was Ramesh who had “misled” the House by giving a “half-truth”. As the argument continued, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said that if the source of the Finance Minister’s information was the lok Sabha website, it cannot be termed as misleading of the House.
BJP member Chandan Mitra, the lone speaker from his party on the Bill, said Jairam’s mention that criticism of Aadhaar could get anyone labelled as ‘anti-national’ reflects the paranoia of the Opposition. “This Bill is a purpose to identify the beneficiary so that it enables people to withdraw their amount without any siphoning off,” Mitra said also reminding the House of late PM Rajiv Gandhi’s famous statement that out of Re one only 15 paise used to reach the beneficiary. “Aadhaar has the potential to stop all such leakages,” Mitra.
While Naresh Agarwal (SP) said the Government’s action of bringing the Bill as a Money Bill raised suspicions and suggested that the Bill should be sent to a Select Committee, KC Tyagi of the JD(U) raised questions about the safety of data saying it could reach CIA or Mossad.
later at AICC briefing, the Congress did not rule out approaching courts against a move to turn the Aadhaar Bill as Money Bill to bypass the Rajya Sabha where the Government lacks majority. “We reserve the right to take recourse to all available alternatives including a court challenge,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters asserting that “by no stretch of imagination, the Aadhaar Bill is Money Bill”.
Insisting that the practice of getting a “certificate” from the lok Sabha, the Speaker cannot become “methodology” of bypassing the Upper House, he said it was an insult of the Rajya Sabha.
