Owaisi writes to Home Ministry, calls proposal to link birth & death data to NPR 'illegal'

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday opposed proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969, to link data on registration of births and deaths to the National Population Register (NPR), electoral rolls and passports. He said that he has written to the Home Ministry on the same as it is 'dangerous and illegal.'

In his letter, Owaisi wrote, "Firstly, there is currently no law that provides substantive and procedural safeguards against collection or misuse of private data. In the absence of a Privacy and Personal Data Protection Act, centralisation of such critical data
attacks the very foundations of the individual right to privacy."

'Interlinking of diverse databases violate right to privacy': Owaisi 

The AIMIM president added that the information collected under the Representation of People Act 1951, Aadhaar Act, 2016, National Food Security Act, 2014, Passport Act and Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019 is all collected for a specific purpose and solely for that purpose alone. He said that inter-linking and centralising such diverse databases violate the principle of purpose limitation, which is at the heart of the right to privacy.

"The principle of purpose limitation requires that data be collected for a specific purpose, that people whose data is being collected give informed consent, and that the same data is not used for any other purpose. By using data of registered births and deaths for updation of other databases, the government is proposing a grave and irreversible violation of rule of law and the fundamental right to privacy," he wrote in his letter to the Union Home Ministry. 

Owaisi Seeks CAA abolition post farm laws repeal

Meanwhile, on November 30, Owaisi reiterated his demand to scrap the Citizenship Amendment Act. Contending that the Centre had made a mockery of the Constitution by bulldozing the farm bills and asserted that they were repealed owing to the fear of defeat in the round of Assembly elections scheduled to take place early next year. Moreover, he maintained that the CAA should also be withdrawn as a "large section" of the population was opposing it.

Owaisi had said, "When the farm laws were repealed, they said that a small section of farmers were against the laws and in the spirit of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav if this government recognises freedom fighters, then what was their message? It was that laws will be enacted in this country with consensus and consent. What kind of independence are you talking about when you pass bills with a brute majority? You are insulting freedom fighters. A very big section in India that loves the Constitution says that CAA was enacted on the basis of religion which is a grave violation of Article 14. That's why we demand CAA should be repealed."