Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Monday, March 12 alleged that the Union government is harvesting information and data of first-time voters illegally through a campaign called “Mera Pehla Vote Desh Ke Liye” (My first vote for the country).
Saket Gokhale said that the campaign was “purely a Modi government” campaign and through it, details like name, gender and date of birth were being collected. The campaign for "first-time voters" on the MyGov website involved taking a pledge and a quiz. MyGov is the Government of India’s Citizen Engagement Platform which collaborates with multiple government bodies/ Ministries.
TNM checked the website and found that the "pledge to vote" can only be taken after registration (which has to be done after mobile OTP authentication) The registration form asks for many details. For the quiz, the site also asks for bank details, though not mandatory.
TNM visited https://www.mygov.in/mera-pehla-vote/ website and found out the following:
The campaign offers five activities: Take a pledge, quiz on India’s democracy, reel making contest, create a podcast, and blog-writing.
2. Under the ‘Mera Pehla Vote, Desh Ke Liye pledge’ , the website seeks details of the applicant such as name, gender, date of birth, pin code, state, district, email and mobile number.
3. Once the details are submitted, the website asks the applicant to select a language to read the pledge.
4. In order to confirm that the applicant has read the pledge, an OTP will be sent to the registered mobile number. Then the certificate of the pledge will be given.
5. Under the ‘Quiz on India’s democracy,’ the applicant has to sign up on the website. The applicant also has to submit their residential address as per government records. After 10 questions are answered within 5 minutes, the site has an option to add bank account details, including account number and IFSC code. This however is not mandatory and is for people who want to avail the prize. The website says that 18 selected people will get Rs 5000 as a prize.
Saket Gokhale questioned why all participants must provide details of their bank account and not just the winners. “This is, clearly, an illegal and dirty voter-data harvesting campaign being run by the Modi Government using state machinery for helping BJP by targeting first time voters with propaganda,” he said, adding that the details that the participant has to submit in the form is enough for a party to identify and target a voter till their polling booth level.
“What is even more shocking is that the Election Commission is allowing this unofficial and unauthorised campaign by the Modi government and BJP despite the fact that elections are to be announced in a few days,” Saket’s statement read.