New Delhi: The commanding officers of the Indian Army in Ladakh have been accused of malpractice in electronic postal ballot system. The deputy commissioner and district election officer (DEO) of Leh has written to the general officer commanding, 14 Corps, alleging that ‘commanding officers are telephonically asking jawans for their voting preference rather than supplying to them the ballot paper for casting their vote’.
The letter sent by Avny Lavasa, who is also the daughter of Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, has cautioned that ‘this is a gross violation of secrecy of voting and a malpractice that has the potential to invite strict legal action.’
She has further urged that ‘all the concerned officers may be sensitised about the issue and the sanctity of election process maintained.’
Lavasa had coped the chief electoral officer of Jammu and Kashmir, senior superintendent of police, Leh, commanding officer, LSRC and all contesting candidates in her letter.
The army later issued a statement through its public relations officer in Srinagar, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, stating that ‘some political candidates appear to have complained regarding postal ballot process to be cast by service personnel.’
It added that ‘no specific instances have been mentioned in the complaints’ and that ‘preliminary investigations indicate that the complaints are unfounded and appear to have been made to tarnish the image of Army.’
The PRO further stated that ‘in depth investigation is on to ascertain the details in the most impartial manner’ and claimed that ‘Army remains apolitical and we hold this core value in letter and spirit.’
Meanwhile, several took to Twitter to question Additional Directorate General of Public Information of the Indian Army about the veracity of the complaint. One person said the letter from the DEO was disturbing at many levels and asked several related questions. Source The Wire
This report is deeply disturbing at so many levels @adgpi
* Why are army COs coercing jawans & monitoring who they vote for?
* Have orders been sent from the top?
* Is this widespread or an exception?
* Any truth to earlier (denied) video report of jawans coercing civilians? https://t.co/opUpNEvNVi— Rakesh Sharma (@rakeshfilm) May 11, 2019
