Will Military Hierarchy 'Make' Soldiers Vote? By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
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 shou