Indian Defence Review

Pursuant to the Supreme Court directing the Election Commission (EC) to allow defence personnel to vote as general voters in place of their posting in peace stations, reiterating an earlier judgment in 1971, the Corps HQ located at Mathura informed the Uttar Pradesh (UP) State Government that troops of the Corps located in Uttar Pradesh would be voting in the 2007 UP State Elections. The intimation to state authorities was given three months before the state elections were scheduled. In those days EC had permitted soldiers to vote from the place of posting if they had served for six months in that station. Concurrently some veterans sent RTI to the local MLA and MP querying how they had helped families of serving soldiers and veterans in their area of jurisdiction and how had they contributed to development of the military cantonments – needless to mention there was no response to the RTIs.

The UP State Government tried to wriggle out from soldier voting by saying the soldiers should get their voting cards made. Army’s response was that soldiers cannot be expected to make new voter card at every station he is posted to, for which they should seek clarification from the EC. Certified lists of soldiers who had served for six months in the station were also sent to the state authorities. The result was that special booths manned by representatives of Election Commission were set up in the military cantonments, where serving soldiers voted with after their ‘Service Identity Cards’ were cross checked with the certified list of voters that had been provided to the civil authorities. No voter cards were used. That is what should be happening in all military stations.

Few events that occurred with relation to the above elections are as under:

•  The local MLA at Mathura came to meet the Station Commander with a bag containing Rs 10 lakh, promising more would follow and asking what were the “orders” to soldiers – to vote for which political party? The Station Commander returned the money and told him army doesn’t issue any such orders – soldiers are free to vote for whoever they want to.

•  A special cell was opened in DC Office at Mathura to look into grievances of soldiers, veterans and their families.

•  Political parties requested permission to hold election rallies in cantonments, which was denied. Instead, they were permitted to put up posters in the civil market within cantonments.

•  At Allahabad, Lucknow, the Army had won a civil case against an illegal basti in cantonment. When this encroachment was evicted, the local Congress complained to Congress President, who rang up Defence Minister Anthony and an inquiry landed up in Allahabad. However, when she discovered that the Division in Allahabad would vote in UP elections, all allegation were withdrawn, inquiry dissolved and she wanted to know when the GOC could have a meal with her.

•  After the elections, the MLA elected at Mathura came to meet the Station Commander and asked how he could help in development of the cantonment by way of electricity, drainage, whatever.  

Prior to the 2014 general elections, MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar held a meeting co-chaired by Mr HS Brahma from Election Commission (later appointed Election Commissioner in January 2015), attended by mix of citizens. As a consequence of this, the mandatory period of a serving soldier to vote in his place of posting was reduced from six months to one day. This takes care of soldiers posted in peace stations and if the same procedure is followed, as was the case in 2007 UP State Elections, it is a simple exercise; election commission representatives scrutinizing the certified list of voters handed over and soldiers voting after showing their service identity cards, rather than getting fresh election cards made with every posting. The latter is impractical in case of newly posted soldiers also with reference to time required for making fresh election cards.

It is not that soldiers in peace station have not voted elsewhere in same place of posting but such instances have been occasional. But what about soldiers posted in field areas? If EC can send polling party inside Gir Forest for a solitary voter, establishing polling booths at battalion headquarters level should hardly be problematic, especially in areas connected by road; surely government can ensure this. Army has issued instructions for all ranks to register as voters but this is difficult in far-flung areas where the internet connection only at battalion headquarters may not even function due to poor connectivity. There is the option of postal ballots, which may or may not reach in time, or may be substituted unfairly. Perhaps army intranet could be used for voting but this is something that Army will need to work out.   

Government recently relieved Major General BC Khanduri from heading Parliament’s Standing Committee for Defence, with the Committee telling Parliament defence allocations have been lowest since 1962, and equipping of forces is pathetic. But now author and strategic affairs analyst Shudip Talukdar,   in his recent article ‘Army: Caught between Devil and deep blue sea’, points out Army took long to recover from the humiliation of 1962, 56 years later finds itself in similar predicament facing open hostility and betrayal. His observation are: Army, the most disciplined force in the country besides winning wars, is committed as last resort by successive failures of civilian agencies in delivering results; what is radically wrong with a system to penalize soldiers who are staking their lives but meekly surrender to forces of rowdyism and vote-banks; what options do soldiers have after being slapped by FIRs, slurs by NGOs and sanctimonious media except to approach the Apex Court for justice. He concludes by saying the nation must stand solidly behind the soldiers, else it could precipitate a crisis of unimaginable magnitude.

With regard to Shudip’s warning ‘else it could precipitate a crisis of unimaginable magnitude’, the fact is that the government is just not bothered, given that there is no opposition worth the name and the military hierarchy submits to every whim and fancy of the MoD bureaucrats. That 756 soldiers are knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court is an unprecedented crisis. The media is captive with activities of veterans agitation for OROP completely blacked out. It may be recalled that during the UPA regime, MM Pallam Raju had publicly expressed concern over news that 2-3 veteran soldiers had joined the Maoists. Are we creating conditions for more such cases?

Are we immune to creating so much of unwarranted stress on that soldiers lose faith in their superiors; are we instigating instances of “fragging” like what was happening in the US Army in Vietnam? Terrorists are already targeting soldiers on leave, forest guards, panchayat officials. Next could be the administrators and judiciary. Remember AQIS gave a call more than a year back for targeting senior police and IAS officers? Do we want similar fracas in the national capital? With the grapevine that MHA is moving towards ‘diluting’ the AFSPA to make it less effective, are we as a nation wanting Army to function as Police?

One way to make the politicians respect the soldiers is to let them vote. The politicians do not favour it because with every soldier being free to vote the way he/she wants, political mathematics is upset. Government anyway bothers two hoots for soldiers; witness the chest thumping planned on October 29 for celebrating anniversary of two-year old ‘surgical strikes’ to fool the public, while the MoD surgically strikes benefits of military community and continues to file appeals in SC against disabled soldiers and military widows.

The onus is, therefore on the Service Chiefs, primarily on the Army Chief because of the 1.4 million military, 1.2 million comprises Army. It is not a question of the usual googly that soldiers are free to vote, but ‘making sure’ that every soldier does vote – a fundamental right denied too long by design. This responsibility is even greater to partly square off the military hierarchy’s nonchalance to petition by 756 officers in SC – making bland statements notwithstanding. Needless to mention, every single move of the hierarchy is keenly watched by soldiers at the ground level.