BOMBAY: The country’s paramilitary and armed forces routinely relied upon to maintain law and order during election time are finding themselves being kept away from the ballot box.
Independent India has made it difficult if not well-nigh impossible for the upholders of national security to fulfill their constitutional obligation of exercising their franchise. They might as well be disenfranchised with vast cross-sections of service personnel and officers having been consistently denied the opportunity to vote.
The problem has arisen partly because of the itinerant nature of their profession which renders updating and authentication of their whereabouts somewhat difficult. Consequently ballot papers sent by post to service voters are often returned undelivered to the returning officers with the addressees remaining untraced.
This situation was compounded by the fact that a large percentage of servicemen fail to register themselves as service voters thereby losing their places on the voters’ lists But primarily the problem lies with the electoral authorities who have hitherto remained casual about reaching out to this significant segment of society by not making determined efforts to ascertain the addresses and not ensuring that the ballot papers reach them in time
Though our defence services by no means constitute valued vote banks as do certain castes and communities in the feudal electoral setup their numbers are by no means insignificant especially when considered along with their wives and dependents who are eligible to vote.
The Indian Army measures 1.1 million strong the naval force having 47000 and the air force 52000. The variegated paramilitary forces include the Central Reserve Police Force the Indo Tibetan Border Police the Central Industrial Security Force the Railway Protection Force the Border Security Force Assam Rifles and the Coast Guard.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 31, 1991
