It goes to the credit of District Election Authorities in Leh to have taken the initiative of prompting 4000 strong Ladakh Scouts to exercise their right to franchise in the impending Assembly elections in J&K. The Ladakh Scouts, recruited from among the indigenous Ladakhi youth, are of crucial importance to the security of the border in Ladakh. They are locals and know the ins and outs of the geography and topography of the region that lies atop the heights of the Himalayas, which incidentally has become the world’s highest battlefield, if it comes to fighting. Along with the battalions of Indian Army, the Ladakh Scouts have been guarding the frontiers of India to its extreme north and in highly inclement weather conditions when at the peak of winter the temperature falls to -40 degrees Celsius.
Being citizens of the State, the jawans of Ladakh Scouts battalions are entitled to cast their vote on 25th of November for selection of their representative to the Legislative Assembly of the State. Indian democracy reaches even the farthest and the remotest persons on the Indian soil. Ladakh Scouts protect the country with their guns and bullets; they also have another weapon called the ballot with which they reassure that they will have their choicest representative in the Legislative Assembly of the State, where crucial matters of the development and progress of people of the State including those in the mountain fastnesses of Himalayas are discussed and decided. People feel comfortable with voting the candidates of their choice and choosing keeping in mind that they would plead the causes of the development of the region and protect the interests of the people of the region.
Though the four thousand strong voters of Ladakh Scouts are entitled to vote yet in the recent Parliamentary elections only one half of them cast the vote. And out of one half only about 860 ballots were considered valid. In this way 75 per cent of these voters remained outside the loop. The EC has taken notice of this discrepancy and under its programme of Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), the District Election Officer in collaboration with the local commander and election staff visited Siachin and Nubra to speak to the jawans of Ladakh Scouts battalions that they should exercise their right to vote and the right process of sending their postal ballots. It is expected that if the Scouts cast their votes in full, it could have noticeable impact on the result of the polling. Apart from that, we consider it a very positive step on the part of the EC to educate the Scouts and others of the good sense of coming out to vote for a candidate of their choice.
Ladakh is a strategically very important region owing to the fact that it encompasses the northern frontier of the Indian Union. Of late it has come into prominence owing to the hostile stance of China with whom our border touches at in Ladakh. Chinese troops have been making unprovoked incursions into our territory and then withdrawing once confronted by the Indian troops. China claims that its limits of her western border end where there is last ethnic trace of Mongoloid race. But Ladakhis, who no doubt are of Mongoloid race, have never shown any sympathy with dictatorial political arrangement that China has. The people in Ladakh region are now part of the vast Indian democratic arrangement. They are fully conscious of the power and importance of ballot. Democratic dispensation has become part of their lives and they hold it dear to themselves. That is why the EC has taken all necessary steps to provide them the opportunity of exercising their right to vote.
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