Gandhi says voter ID welfare rule risks rights

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the government of putting welfare access at risk by making voter identification details and biometric authentication the basis for payments, after Union minister Lalan Singh described a change from Aadhaar. Gandhi alleged that electoral-roll revisions were being used to remove names of people opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), linking the reported payment arrangement to what he called “rights theft.” In a post on X on November 6, Gandhi said millions of names were being removed under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and warned that more could be deleted. He alleged that people angry with the BJP were particularly at risk. The reports provide no independent evidence establishing that deletions were politically targeted or that millions of names had been removed. Singh, the Union minister for Panchayati Raj, said in a video shared by Gandhi that Aadhaar would no longer be the basis for payments to beneficiaries. He said the basis would instead be biometric authentication and the Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number associated with a voter ID. Singh said Aadhaar was readily obtainable, while the reports...