New vote bank

Unlike in Punjab and a few other States, people in the South are not well-versed on the structure of the defence forces and the contributions being made by its personnel (“ >Armed forces as a vote bank ,” March 12). It is unfortunate that even police officials, other than officers of the IPS cadre, have no knowledge of the rank structure in the defence forces. As a member of a political party in Tamil Nadu, I have realised that most politicians do not think it necessary to value the sentiments and needs of serving and retired personnel.

Mohan Thomas,

Chennai

The Congress is living in an illusory world if it hopes that the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ sop will get it the entire vote bank of the armed forces. There is no such bank! The votes of serving personnel are very thinly scattered and thus negligible. Except for Punjab and Haryana, there are no significant ex -servicemen vote banks. We ex-servicemen will have to read the fine print and wait till the cheques come into our bank accounts.

C.V. Venugopalan,

Palakkad