A few weeks from now 81.45 crore registered voters of this mammoth democracy will cast votes to elect representatives to 16th Lok Sabha. Elections to the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assemblies have to be free and fair. It means voters must have the freedom of movement and freedom of expression. Indirectly, it means they need protection to exercise the right. Who shall provide freedom and security? It is the State, meaning its security apparatus, whether police, paramilitary, defence forces meaning all the three wings and civil defence units. This, by a conservative estimate, makes up one million jawans drawn from various formations of men and women in uniform.
The strength of our security forces is something like 14 lakh soldiers and 9 lakh paramilitaries. Taken into account along with families, the number is around 30 lakh. Will you believe that this large number of Indian citizenry is not provided necessary wherewithal to exercise their right to vote. The jawans of paramilitaries, CRPF, BSF, Army, Air Force and such other organizations as are deployed to protect voters, election staff, Government officials right up to the rank of ministers so that they can cast their valuable vote freely and without fear, have no opportunity to cast their own vote as if they are aliens and not citizens of India. Nothing can be more ludicrous. Sixty-four years have gone by since first Lok Sabha election in 1951-52. No Government, no minister, no public leader raised the question why this big chunk of Indian citizenry, soldiers by profession, remains disfranchised. Why a mechanism should not be in place to let them have the chance of casting their vote.
The reason for this grave discrepancy lies somewhere else. It is the legacy of the colonial rule kept in tight embrace by our political class. The British rulers had declared politics something like touch-me-not and meticulously kept the men in uniform intentionally distanced from its shadow. Their experience of the Mutiny of 1857 had taught them that Indian soldiers and security personnel should never be allowed to dabble in the politics of the country. It was sacrilege to talk of things like politics, parties, political ideologies and political leadership. Doing so was seditious. Unfortunately, the continuity of this hangover has been maintained in the tradition of our armed forces. Successive Governments, of whatever hue these were, never banished that mindset. This happens when vested interests overtake national priorities and self-aggrandizement becomes an article of faith with politicians.
But, for their countrymen, British colonialisms had a different yardstick. During the WW II, they provided mobile polling booths for the British soldiers fighting in the jungles of Burma. American law gives powers to the election authority to devise methods of obtaining the votes of men and women on active service. Britain allows proxy voting for her overseas voters. Canadian soldiers have the option of voting by email or casting vote in the polling booth set up in respective units.
Nobody in our country has paid any serious attention to the need of enfranchising our security personnel on duty. Yes, there are some rules with the Election Commission, but these are outdated, ineffective and non-practical. A soldier is allowed to vote along with his family if he has had a three year-long stay at one station. But practically hardly does a soldier remain posted for three years at one station. Units shift and personnel shift. Only those employed in Defence establishments may have the opportunity of benefitting from this provision. For a very large majority of soldiers this is not possible and practicable.
Only recently, the Chief Election Commissioner of India, while on a tour of the United States, said that the Commission was thinking of providing the facility of electronic voting for the security personnel. But he was very cautious in making any commitment and just said that the matter was under consideration. He appealed to his audience to come forth with security solution in the case of electronic voting. One can infer that though the issue of not disfranchising the vast number of security personnel from their right of voting is before the Commission, yet the Government is not disposed to give it a serious thought. The question of soldiers sending their ballot paper through post is almost ridiculous because it seldom reaches the concerned in time and thus loses its utility.
We need to emphasize on the Government and the Election Commission that all citizens of India are entitled to the fundamental right to vote. On constitutional basis, a soldier being a citizen of India cannot be denied the right to vote in elections. Secondly, it is again the right of every citizen of India, including personnel of armed forces or paramilitaries, to freely and fully participate in political debates in the country and to show his or her affiliation to one or the other political party. Thirdly, it is the responsibility of the Election Commission to see how soldiers on duty can exercise their right to voting. It has to call for options to solution of the problem whether it is mobile booths or electronic voting, or voting by email or whatever including pre and post election timing to ensure that the right of voting is exercised. A case to this purpose has been filed before the Supreme Court of India and in all probability the Court is likely to consider legal, constitutional and moral aspect of the case.
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