Jallianwala Bagh and the National Memorial ( Amendment) Bill, 2019

Jallianwala Bagh and the National Memorial ( Amendment) Bill, 2019 

The Rajya Sabha discussed with passion, the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill 2019, in the centenary year of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (13th April 1919). This Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha during the previous monsoon session and was debated in the upper house of the parliament yesterday. Leaders, cutting across party lines, paid rich tributes to the Jallianwala Bagh martyrs - innocent lives that were lost during the devilish massacre that was perpetrated by the British on innocent people - including women and children - who had assembled at the Jallianwala Bagh park. Hundreds of people died in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and several more were severely wounded and mimed for life in the tyrannical act by the Colonial British forces. The perpetrator, as expected, most unfortunately, went unpunished. 

The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill 2019 debate brought to focus an unanimous agreement of the house on the express need to create a world class National Memorial at this historic site. The Honourable Culture Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel  concluded the debate and thanked all the members who took part in the debate and the house passed the Bill with voice vote.  During the debate most members, particularly from Punjab and West Bengal, recollected the horror and highlighted the support that Nobelist Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore gave in staging protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. 

Rabindranath Tagore was knighted by the British in 1915 and was also the recipient of the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature. When he received the tragic news about Jallianwala Bagh, he was deeply pained. He tried his best to move towards Punjab and sent a message to Mahatma Gandhi ji  suggesting that both of them together should travel to Delhi and from there to Punjab to show solidarity with the people of Punjab. But then the Mahatma was not in favour of Gurudev’s idea, idea, which he feared may lead to violence. (The great Indian statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis - founder of Indian Statistical Institute - has talked about this). When Gandhi ji did not support his idea of moving to Punjab - fearing violence - Tagore approached Chittaranjan Das, a stalwart of Bengal during non-cooperation movement, and requested him to arrange a protest meeting, which he wished to preside. Unfortunately that too did not materialise and therefore Tagore, agonised by the unprecedented Jallianwala Bagh massacre, decided to protest against the British brutality by denouncing his knighthood. He denounced his knighthood as an act of protest with a repudiation letter, which he wrote to the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford, dated May 30, 1919.

In this historic letter Tagore says  “The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings. ..  And these are the reasons which have compelled me to ask Your Excellency, with due reference and regret, to relieve me of my title of knighthood, which I had the honour to accept from His Majesty the King at the hands of your predecessor, for whose nobleness of heart,  I still entertain great admiration”. Tagore organised more than one protest in Calcutta against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

It is therefore in fitness of things that Calcutta, (Kolkata) the city where major protests against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre were staged, will now be commemorating the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre with an interesting exhibition. The exhibition ‘Ways of Remembering Jallianwala Bagh & Rabindranath Tagore’s Response to the Massacre’ will be unique because of its linkage to Punjab and Bengal the two major states, which were central to the freedom struggle. More over, this will be the first time that the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH), a symbol of British Colonial Raj, in almost its hundred years of existence, will be hosting an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of Jallianwala Bagh for which I wish to thank my good friend Dr Sengupta General Secretary of VMH. This unique exhibition, curated by Ms. Dutta Gupta, will provide historic information on not just what happened on that fateful day - April 13, 1919 - but will place the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in context. On display will be the letter that Tagore wrote to Viceroy Chelmsford. Tagore continued his efforts in highlighting the atrocities committed at Jallianwala Bagh till the matter was discussed in the British Parliament. The exhibition will include Tagore’s letters with C.F. Andrews and other public figures and various other kinds of archival documents.

Certain incidents from the annals of history, remain infamously etched in the collective memory of nations and one such event for India is the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The British General, Reginald Dyer, one hundred years ago on the infamous 13th of April 1919, perpetrated the most heinous of act at the Jallianwala Bagh. It continues to be one of the worst heinous, unpardonable, dastardly criminal act that left an indelible scar on our nation and it continues to evoke emotions of unprecedented proportions, which were witnessed during the parliamentary debate on the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial ( Amendment) Bill, 2019.  While the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy cannot be reversed, an unconditional apology from the British government, which was long overdue, could have demonstrated their remorse for this dastardly act. But most unfortunately it has not happened. The British Government, true to their tyrannical past refused to render an apology, let alone compensate through reparation begging atonement for their inexcusable crime. Contrary to their condemnable behaviour, we Indians, true to our culture and philosophy of ahimsa have moved on and have not even asked for an official apology not to talk of any reparation - the articulations for which was so exemplarily adduced by Dr. Shashi Tharoor in a debate - now gone viral - before the August gathering at the Oxford.

The criminality of the massacre of innocent lives by the British General at the Jallianwala Bagh, can be mirrored to such other equally heinous crimes that were committed at the Auschwitz by the Nazis during the WW II and perhaps to the more recent Tiananmen Square, China, in 1989. The Jallianwala Bagh had all the trappings of a crime against humanity and should have placed General Dyer in the infamous company of villains of World Wars but unfortunately that has not happened, courtesy Mahatma Gandhi ji.Although Gandhi ji called Dyer, ‘the chief perpetrator of the Jallianwala Bagh, blood thirsty and warned people against ‘Dyerism’, yet he asked the ‘Jallianwala Bagh Congress Inquiry Committee’ not to prosecute him. The apostle of peace that he was, Gandhi ji pardoned Dyer’s unpardonable sin. 

More than 300 unarmed civilians, including a large number of women and children, were gunned down indiscriminately by Reginald Dyer’s British army and as per some records, almost 2,000 more were grievously wounded when Dyer, ordered his troops to fire at unarmed protesters in the Jallianwala park. What prompted this peaceful, Gandhian like, protest by the Punjabis, was the backtracking of the promise made by the British to the Indian National Congress and other leaders of the Indian Independence movement, to accord Dominion Status to India, involving some amount of self-governance. In return, the British had sought India’s support in fighting World War I. While Indians, particularly the Punjabis - Sikhs - uncompromisingly supported the British in their War, including payment of millions of pounds in taxes, and providing food grains, arms and ammunition for the British Army to fight the War and so also the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Punjabi men during the war, what they expected post the WW1 was a promise of self rule. But after the War the British reneged on their promise compelling peaceful protests across nations including the one at the Jallianwala Bagh.

The cruelty and inhuman act of Jallianwala Bagh massacre ensured that Amritsar became India, an India that was outraged, bloodied and the ensuing trauma was so deep as to have altered the very composition of India’s political psyche. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre became a symbol of the tyrannical rule by the British that changed the political history of our country and accentuated the way forward for our focussed and sustained freedom struggle. On the occasion of the centenary of this dastardly act an unpardonable tragedy of humongous proportions, it is pertinent to question the British on what authority did they have to impose their so called higher ideas of morality. The hundred years post the Jallianwala Bagh has been a long time in the Indian political history and from being a subservient nation to the colonial masters, we have come a long way and several subsequent happenings including independence, the trauma of partition, self-sufficiency in food, achieving an incredible success in the field of IT, education, Space and Atomic energy and so also the improvement in the overall socio economic conditions of our citizens. All of these developments have tried to erase the trauma of the Jallianwala Bagh, which however has continued to remain in our collective memory. However it is necessary that we perpetuate this information to the young generation, in whose minds this memory is gradually fading into the sepia of fading memory. The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial hopefully will ensure that we as a nation don’t forget this incident.  On this centenary year of the Jallianwala Bagh, let us all join hands in praying for all those martyrs who sacrificed their life for the freedom of our country and pledge that we remain united as one nation, whose foundations were built on the sacrifice of innumerable martyrs.

Jai Hind

Image courtesy Bijay chaurasia, Wikimedia commons. 

Global Effort for Polio Eradication: India a Polio Free Country

Global Effort for Polio Eradication: India a Polio Free Country

Introduction.

It has been more than five years since India was officially declared as a Polio Free nation - declared polio free on March 27, 2014. With this the entire WHO South - East Asia Region were officially declared as being polio-free. This momentous occasion was globally hailed as a breakthrough in the fight to eradicate polio,  more so since India - the second most populated country in the world - just a decade before being polio free, accounted for almost 70% of all recorded polio cases worldwide. The message for the health workers across the world was loud and clear, India had the will to achieve the impossible and it did, amidst lots of triumphs and tribulations spread almost for two decades. The achievements of India kind of changed the paradigm for the global polio eradication effort.

The last lone known case of wild polio, with the onset of paralysis, detected in India was in the year 2011 in a two year old girl in Panchla block of Howrah, on 13th January 2011and ever since India has been a polio free nation. This outstanding achievement, in combating this epidemic challenge, to get rid of polio from the face of our nation, has been achieved as a result of persistent and focused effort and unprecedented collaboration among scientists, administrators and international collaborators. Polio eradication campaign in India has combined cutting edge research on vaccines with mass social movement with door to door follow up, effective communication, public and private outreach, political desire and relentless surveillance. This programme has received the highest level of social and political commitment, which is reflected in the resource allocation, continuous efforts to identify and reach out to the most vulnerable children with structured strategies for maximum reach, optimum use of available vaccines under the guidance of top national and international experts, an extraordinary communication strategy and strong partnership. This article ( extracted from my published article in the Propagation Journal of NCSM) focuses on the fascinating history and development of the polio vaccine and chronicles the triumphs and tribulations that went into this largest public health initiative, “The Global Eradication of Polio”, in history. It will also give an insight into the fascinating global story behind the pursuit to defeat polio against great odds with special emphasis on India.

Polio

The word poliomyelitis (Paralytic poliomyelitis), meaning, Polio in short, the medical term used to describe the effect of poliovirus (PV) on the spinal cord, is derived from the Greek roots for gray (polio) and marrow (myelon). It describes the tissue most commonly affected in the spinal cord that leads to the symptomatic manifestation of paralysis. Polio is a contagious disease caused by an intestinal virus that may attack nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord.  This pathogen is an enterovirus that has been the source of a great deal of human suffering. The frontiers of research in medical diagnostics and biomedical research has helped human society in the development of vaccines, which have helped us in combating this deadly pathogen. The genome of polio virus is comparatively small, yet it is packed with requisite information to make it a formidable pathogen. The symptoms of Polio include;  fever, headache, sore throat, and vomiting. Some of the Polio victims develop neurological complications, including stiffness of the neck and back, weak muscles, pain in the joints and paralysis of one or more limbs or respiratory muscles. In severe cases Polio may prove to be fatal as a result of respiratory paralysis.

Poliovirus, a member of the enterovirus subgroup, is a causative agent of the poliomyelitis and a human enterovirus. They are the transient inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tract, and are stable at acid pH and have an RNA genome, which is 7411 nucleotides long. There are three poliovirus serotypes (P1, P2, and P3) and there is minimal heterotypic immunity between the three serotypes. It can rapidly be inactivated by heat, formaldehyde, chlorine, and ultraviolet light. The polio manifests in three ways; mild polio, non paralytic polio and paralytic polio. People who actually develop paralytic polio will experience muscle weakness, stiffness, tremors, fever, constipation, muscle pain and spasms and difficulty in swallowing.

Polio can be spread through contact with contaminated feces or through airborne droplets, in food, or in water. The virus enters the body by nose or mouth, and then travels to the intestines where it incubates. Next, it enters the bloodstream where anti-polio antibodies are produced. In most cases, this stops the progression of the virus and the individual gains permanent immunity against the disease.  Polio was feared, for it was wrongly perceived that anyone who contracts the polio virus is certain to be paralysed and may even die. This is contrary to facts and in most infections caused by polio there are few distinctive symptoms of Acute Flaccid Poliomyelitis, AFP in short. In fact, 95 percent of everyone who is exposed to the natural polio virus won’t exhibit any symptoms, even under epidemic conditions, since the human immune system is capable of protecting us from this pathogen. Only about 5 percent of infected people will experience mild symptoms, such as a sore throat, stiff neck, headache, and fever, often diagnosed as a cold or flu. Muscular paralysis has been estimated to occur in about one in every 1,000 people who contracts the disease. Since initial descriptions of poliomyelitis were first documented, to the present time, innumerable milestones have been reached in understanding the molecular biology of polio virus and the pathogenesis of poliomyelitis. Such advances have led to more effective management of poliomyelitis.

Early accounts of the history of Polio

One of the earliest written accounts of Polio is that of the Pharaoh, Siptah, who ruled ancient Egypt from 1200BC to 1193 BC. It is said that Siptah was stricken with paralysis disease as a young boy. There is also a myth associated with the incident. However, the oldest identifiable reference to the prevalence of Polio also comes from Egypt, which is in the form of an Egyptian Steele, a stone engraving - about 3000 years old - which describes a priest with a withered leg, suggesting that polio existed for thousands of years. Many references to Polio also appear in the Holy Bible in which polio is translated as palsy. In English language translation of the Bible, the word palsy is used instead of the word “paralysis”, which is derived from the French word paralesis, meaning paralysis. This was shortened to palesie, which appeared as palsy in the King James Version of the Bible in the 16th century.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), a Scottish novelist and poet, wrote about his own case of Polio. However, it was only in the year 1789 that a proper description was given for this disease by the British physician Dr. Michael Underwood. He was the first person to give the first known clinical description for polio, which he called the “debility of the lower extremities”. He further stated that the polio disease was responsible for the hindrance of the lower extremities in children, which was recognisable as poliomyelitis. Dr Jacob Von Heine, an orthopedist from Germany was the first person to conduct systematic investigation of polio. He developed the theory that this disease may be contagious. He published a 78 page monograph in 1840, which described the clinical features of Polio and also the symptoms associated with it. Dr Heine further suggested the involvement of the spinal cord associated with this disease. Unfortunately due to a limited medical knowledge of that time and also because of the sub microscopic nature of the polio virus, Heine and others could not understand the contagious nature of the disease.  Based on his study, the illness associated with Polio was recognised as a clinical entity. It is in recognition of this that Poliomyelitis is often referred to as Heine-Medin disease, known after the works of Heine and Karl Oskar Medin.

During the 1905 polio epidemic in Sweden, Dr. Ivar Wickman, Swedish pediatrician, was the first to clearly show the infectious nature of polio. In the year 1907, Wickman also categorized the three different clinical types of Polio, namely poliovirus serotypes P1, P2, and P3.  This was soon followed by an isolation of the poliovirus in laboratory monkeys, in 1908, by Karl Landsteiner, Viennese immunologist - who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1930 for his discovery of the human blood groups -  and his associate, Evvin Popper. They also discovered that bacteria could not be found in spinal cord tissues of infected human and they therefore thought that perhaps bacteria were not the causes for the disease. This led them to suggest that virus was the causative agent of Polio. They further experimented by injecting suspensions from the spinal cord of a diseased 9-year-old boy into rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and monkeys. Only the monkeys showed signs of disease. They ground up the spinal cords of children who died of polio and injected the material into monkeys. Soon the monkeys developed the disease. They also observed that no bacteria were found in the monkeys and their nervous system changes resembled those of rabies. Based on their findings, Landsteiner suggested that the disease has a viral etiology. He then sent fragments of a spinal cord from a 13-year-old child afflicted with poliomyelitis, to the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Poliovirus was shown to be a filterable virus that could spread along nerves and be transferred between monkeys.

The discovery of the virus-causing poliomyelitis was immediately accepted. In the following years Simon Flexner and Paul Lewin, working at the John Hopkins University, Maryland, confirmed Landsteiner and Poppers findings. This was of great importance since scientists could now attempt to find a vaccine to stop the spread of this disease. By 1909-10, the main focus of polio research had shifted to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. The polio research at the institute was lead by Dr. Simon Flexner and his team. The year 1910 was a landmark year for polio; the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons devoted more attention to polio that year than to any other subject. In Flexner's lab the poliovirus seemed to only infect the nervous system, but was also present in a small number of non-neural sites, particularly the upper nasal area after direct inoculation. Polio thus seemed to be a respiratory infection with the virus spread by infected droplets followed by direct nervous system invasion via the nerves in the nose. This nasal-nervous system model dominated how polio was approached until the late 1930s.

During the next course of the research one of the first questions to be answered was whether just one particular virus caused polio or if there was more than one kind of virus and how this was transmitted. Research on this question took several years. But it was finally proved that there are just three strains or types of virus that cause the ailment. This gave hope that a vaccine could be produced to prevent polio.  Sabin was the first researcher to show that polio virus was present in digestive system as well as brain and spinal cord.

How Polio is transmitted.

The study and understanding of how polio was transmitted from one person to another was the next important step towards better understanding of the spread of this disease for a possible vaccine. Flexner and Lewis, during their initial study of this disease, were of the opinion that polio was spread directly from the nose to the brain. They introduced washings from nose and throat of the infected people into the monkey’s nasal passages. Monkeys developed polio so they concluded that this was the mode of transmission. This however was not the case. Unfortunately for the next 20 years or so people believed that this was the way by which polio was transmitted. A hint to the true mode of transmission of this disease was found in 1912, when Swedish researchers discovered polio virus in the contents and walls of small human intestine. It was not until 1941 that Albert Sabin showed that polio virus was not present in the nasal membrane of patients who died of polio. He demonstrated the presence of the virus in the digestive tract as well as brain and spinal cord.

Polio struck fast and there was no known cure for this crippler disease and no one was spared of this disease, not even the rich and powerful, including the then President of USA, Roosevelt. Polio crippled its victims for life. The scene of people hobbling on crutches, rolling in wheelchairs, or lying immobile in giant iron lungs, across the globe, was one of the most common scenarios and the number of people who suffered from this disease increased every year. No one knew for sure the exact mechanism of polio's transmission and therefore, it was very common, then, to place many areas under strict quarantine when cases of the disease began to manifest themselves. Only the fear surrounding AIDS now can rival the feelings people had about polio in the first half of the twentieth century.

The first reported outbreaks of polio in Europe were in the early 19th century, and outbreaks were reported in the United States a few years later. For the next hundred years, epidemics of polio were reported from developed countries in the northern hemisphere each summer and fall. These epidemics became increasingly severe, and the average age of persons affected rose, which increased both the disease severity and number of deaths from polio. Polio reached a peak in the United States in 1952, with over 20,000 paralytic cases. However the polio incidence fell rapidly following introduction of effective vaccines. The last case of wild-virus polio acquired in the United States was in 1979.

Only once in human history have we witnessed the total eradication of a dreaded disease, and that was smallpox, nearly four decades ago. The humanity now stands on the brink of a second major triumph to rid the world of Polio, which has been achieved through the “global eradication of polio” campaign spear headed by the WHO with support from Rotary International and several other governmental and non governmental agencies. As we are inching very close to this remarkable goal it is time to look back on some historically significant developments that have led us to this remarkable collective human endeavor.

President Roosevelt the crusader of Polio eradication

Franklin D Roosevelt, President of the United States (1932 to 1945) a polio victim, popularly known as FDR, declared a war on Polio during his presidency tenure. He constructively used the tremendous resources of postwar America to combat the polio menace and aided the scientific community to develop a vaccine that could help prevent polio. Roosevelt wore heavy steel braces on his legs and walking was difficult for him.  Most of his time was spent in a wheelchair. Roosevelt contracted the poliomyelitis paralysis on Aug 10, 1921, at the age of 39 years, while vacationing at his Canadian summerhouse on Campobello Island, during one of his swimming outings.

Warm Springs Georgia

Warm Springs is the most famous of Georgia's seven known warm springs and the water at the warm spring was believed to contain some magic therapeutic properties because of the presence of some beneficial mineral in its waters. The native Indian habitants believed that the water at the Georgia Springs could be beneficial as a medical cure for several diseases. It was also believed that warm water springs contained minerals and that the constituents of these minerals in the water at the spring could treat various diseases. For the local Indians, the springs were probably a place of healing where the Indians of all tribes were allowed to bring their sick and wounded to drink the waters and bathe in the mud.

Polio treatment and Warm Springs Georgia.

Recognising the potential of the location, as a great tourist resort, in the year 1923, Warm Springs Company was formed with George Foster Peabody as its president. One of the beneficiaries of the magic healing properties of the warm springs of Georgia was a young civil engineer from New York, Louis W. Joseph. He had been greatly helped by swimming in the pool at Warm Springs. On learning about this incident and about the benefit that the warm springs could provide to polio victims, Peabody, who had befriended Roosevelt when FDR had been Secretary of the Navy and an unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate, informed Roosevelt about the incident and asked Roosevelt to try if this could help him. Roosevelt came to Georgia in 1924 and discovered that a swim at the warm springs served as a hydrotherapy and he was able to easily move his lame legs under water. Roosevelt remained closely tied to the Georgia springs for the next 21 years, until his death in April 1945.

A local news paper published an article that Georgia’s Warm springs provided therapeutic relief to Roosevelt, who by then was already very famous. This local news article was soon picked up and reprinted nationally. Soon, thereafter, other polio victims began to arrive at the old resort for treatment and stayed in the adjacent cottages. The polio activities overshadowed the vacation resort uses for which the company was formed and therefore, on the insistence of Roosevelt, Warm Springs Foundation was established in 1925 for the study and after-treatment of infantile paralysis (polio). Roosevelt became the head of the foundation and Peabody one of the four trustees.  The new Foundation had two objectives, namely to use the natural facilities of Warm Springs and the skill of an able, carefully-selected professional staff for the direct aid of patients and to pass on to the medical profession and to hospitals throughout the land, useful observations or special methods of proved merit resulting from this specialized work. Unfortunately, notwithstanding the noble cause of the Foundation, it received protests from regular resort guests who felt their sharing of the facilities with the patients of Polio would endanger them to the disease. During this period there was lot of confusion and misunderstanding about polio. In order to allay the fears of the regular guests, Roosevelt, on his own, built a small treatment pool, a small distance from the public pool, for the exclusive use of the polio patients.

Roosevelt, in the year 1926, invited Dr. LeRoy W. Hubbard, an orthopedic surgeon of the New York State Health Department, to conduct a medical study on the effects of warm water on polio victims. Dr. Hubbard observed 23 patients for a period of time and then wrote a detailed report indicating that each patient had seemed to improve, and some showed marked improvement. This convinced Roosevelt of the benefits for treating polio and “swimming his way to health.” As Peabody once said, “Without Warm Springs, Franklin Roosevelt could never have become the President.”  Roosevelt, even after becoming the President of the United States, continued to visit the warm springs. The cottage where he stayed during his visit became the “Little White House.”

The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation dedicated itself to the conquest of polio. Through its fund raising “President's Birthday Balls” and the “March of Dimes” treatment was provided to polio victims. When the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines virtually eliminated polio, the need for the Foundation was greatly lessened. The Little White House and other properties were willed to the Foundation by President Roosevelt. In 1947, a memorial was dedicated to him at the site, which has been visited by millions of people.

March of Dimes

In 1932, Roosevelt was elected President. The fact that the disease had affected a man in the White House seemed to arouse public interest. The trustees of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation decided money could be raised for the foundation by holding dances in cities across the nation on President’s birthday, January 30. More money was raised than was needed for Warm Springs, so it was used for scientific research. In January 1938, alarmed by decades of worsening polio epidemics and the terrible toll the virus was taking on America’s young, President Roosevelt established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The Foundation emphasised a nationwide significance and non-partisan character of the polio crusade. Roosevelt believed that people could solve any problem if they worked together. Comedian Eddie Cantor coined the phrase “March of Dimes” (playing on the popular newsreel feature “The March of Time”), appealing to radio listeners all over the country to send their dimes directly to the White House. The campaign, to start with, received lukewarm response but within weeks of its launch became immensely popular and White House was flooded with loads of Dimes  proving to be hugely successful. The National Foundation officially changed its name to the March of Dimes in 1979.The money collected from this campaign was put to proper use by financing medical research in leading universities and medical schools to develop a polio vaccine. This research has led, step by step, to the ultimate victory over polio. The March of Dimes occupies a unique place in the American history. Its efforts to provide care for the victims of polio while aggressively working to develop vaccines against it, represents the first large-scale, nationwide biomedical initiative, led by a charitable organization. It also helped make the volunteer movement an integral part of the fabric of American life. March of Dimes investment has also been made in other research fields in science, which include support to 11 Nobel laureate scientists whose original work was supported by grants from March of Dimes.

Early efforts in the development Polio Vaccines.

The first great hope of developing polio vaccine emerged in 1934-35. Dr. Marice Brodie developed an inactivated polio vaccine and it was soon followed by the rival group headed by Dr. John Kolmer who developed an attenuated version of the polio vaccine. The success though was short-lived. Their hasty use of vaccines in parts of US proved ineffective and in several cases were fatal. This experience left polio researchers hesitant to attempt another polio vaccine for the next 20 years.
An important new era in the history of polio vaccines began when a short paper was published in the journal Science by J.F. Enders, T.H. Weller and F.C. Robbins, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. They were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954 "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue".

Their paper described the means of solving the long-standing problem of culturing the poliovirus in test tubes using non-nervous tissues. The essence of their discovery is described in their Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Their discovery finally provided a method to demonstrate the presence of the poliovirus free from the expensive process of inoculating monkeys, or even mice. This landmark discovery finally opened the door for the development of a practical polio vaccine. In 1951 a method of providing passive immunity to polio was first tried in North America. During the course of this experimentation it was discovered that the small amounts of virus that entered the bloodstream could be overcome by a small amount of poliovirus antibodies. Poliovirus antibodies contained in gamma globulin could thus be used to neutralise poliovirus infection over a limited period of time. Further studies showed antibodies against polio are formed in the blood of the victim. That's why a person who has suffered an attack by one strain of virus is immune to that strain, thereafter.  Subsequent works made it apparent that a practical vaccine for the prevention of polio could be produced.

The Salk vaccine Story

Dr Jonas Salk was born to the Russian–Jewish parents, and attended the medical school in New York University. He spent a year, researching the recently discovered influenza virus. His technique succeeded and influenced his later work on polio: He later said “The principal that I tried to establish was really that it was not necessary to run the risk of infection, which would have been the case if one were to try to develop an attenuated or weakened poliovirus vaccine. And so, it seemed to me the safer and more certain way to proceed. That if we could inactivate the virus that we could move on to a vaccine very quickly”.

Dr Salk while working at the University of Pittsburgh undertook a major effort to sort out 196 known strains of poliovirus into three immunologically distinct types and categorized them as strains I (161 strains), II (20 strains) and III (15 strains). In 1946 he became assistant professor of epidemiology at Michigan. By 1951, based on his earlier work of developing an inactivated influenza vaccine, and his experience with the poliovirus typing project, coupled with the work of others studying poliovirus immunity in monkeys, Salk suggested that an inactivated polio vaccine might stimulate active immunity in humans. He developed the polio vaccine by cultivating three strains of the poliovirus separately in monkey tissue. The virus was separated from the tissue, stored for a week, and killed with formaldehyde. He then conducted tests to make sure that the virus was dead. He proved that a series of three or four injections with the killed virus vaccine were required to confer polio immunity. The works of Dr. Andrew J. Rhodes, a leading virologist from England with a special interest in polio, were of special significance to Salk in the development of his vaccine. By 1951, Rhodes' research team was able to grow all three types of poliovirus in a variety of tissues. Salk used the method of growing poliovirus in different tissues in the development of a polio vaccine.  This vaccine came to be known as the Salk vaccine. Salk tried his vaccine by first injecting himself and his family to infuse a sense of confidence among the public. He then proceeded to administer the vaccine to residents of an institution for disabled children near Pittsburgh. The encouraging results of the trial were published in March 1953. It was around this time that Dr. Leone Farrell developed the "Toronto technique" to produce bulk quantities of poliovirus fluids in large bottles. This development paved the way for mass production of Salk vaccines.

Encouraged by Salk's results, in July 1953, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis asked Connaught Medical Research Laboratories (Aventis Pasteur Limited), to provide all the poliovirus fluids required for an unprecedented polio vaccine field trial in the US. Some 3,000 litres of bulk poliovirus fluids produced by Connaught were shipped to two major pharmaceutical companies, Parke Davis and Eli Lilly in the US to be inactivated and processed into a finished vaccine. Before being released for the field trial, each batch of vaccine had to pass through a battery of tests, first by Connaught, then each company, Salk's lab and the US government. Amidst intense publicity, the first children were given the new polio vaccine on April 26, 1954. The field trial was one of the largest medical experiments in history, at that time, and involved an elaborate tracking of some 1,800,000 children in the age group of 5-8 years. They were either given the vaccine, or were simply observed to see if they contracted polio or not.  The results were dramatic. Cases of polio fell spectacularly in the vaccinated test groups. In 1955, the government quickly granted permission for the vaccine to be distributed to the children of US. On April 12, 1955, the highly anticipated clinical trial results turned into a major media event, perhaps the biggest in medical history. "SALK'S VACCINE WORKS!" screamed the headlines. Dr. Thomas Francis, director of the trial, reported that the vaccine was 60 to 80 per cent effective against paralytic polio. He and Salk stressed that the vaccine was good, but it was not perfect.

The success though was not long lived. Suddenly, on April 25, 1955, the Salk vaccine euphoria was shattered when the first of a total of 205 cases of polio associated with vaccine made by Cutter Laboratories in California were reported. The problem was traced to incomplete inactivation of some virus particles, which was soon corrected. Since then the vaccine has been highly effective, with a 70 - 90% protection rate. The Salk vaccine is given in two intramuscular injections, spaced one month apart and is to be followed by boosters every 5 years.


Live Oral Polio Vaccine – Dr Alber Sabin

Albert Bruce Sabin, born in 1906 in Poland, then a part of Russia, to escape racial persecution, immigrated with his family to the USA in 1921. He graduated from New York University in 1928. In 1935, he joined the staff of Rockefeller University before moving in 1939 to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to conduct research on viruses. His experience of working as a consultant to the army during World War II, during which time he isolated the virus of sand fly fever, and also helped in developing a vaccine against dengue fever, benefitted him in developing a live oral polio vaccine.

Sabin showed that poliovirus first invaded the digestive tract and then the nervous system. In 1957, in an effort to improve upon the Salk vaccine, he began testing a live, oral form of vaccine in which the infectious part of the virus was inactivated (attenuated) and not killed, as was the case in Salk vaccine. He developed a live but attenuated oral vaccine that not only proved to be superior in administration, but also provided longer lasting immunity than the Salk vaccine. The killed-virus vaccine of Salk could protect only against paralysis, whereas Sabin’s live attenuated vaccine could guard against both paralysis and infection. Dr Sabin demonstrated the effectiveness of his vaccine in the field trials during the period 1958 and 1959. After a clash between the rival camps and their principals, by 1962 Salk’s vaccine was replaced by the Sabin vaccine.

Sabin’s, live oral polio vaccine (OPV) for immunization against poliomyelitis, vaccine could be taken orally and it provided longer immunity than the killed-virus vaccine. This vaccine became available for use in 1963. The Sabin oral vaccine is given in 3 doses in the first two years of life, and a booster is given subsequently when the child starts her schooling. Further boosters are not given unless the patient is exposed to polio or travels to an endemic region. The advantages of a live, oral vaccine are its long-lasting immunity, the prevention of re-infection of the digestive tract, and the lower cost of administering the vaccine orally because sterile syringes and needles are not necessary. Sabin’s oral polio vaccines are used in India during the National Immunisation Day campaigns.

World Health Organisation and Polio eradication.

The eradication of the polio with the use of Polio vaccines in the developed nations prompted the World Health Organization, in 1988, to set a goal for itself of eradication of poliomyelitis from the entire world by the year 2000. Although way off the target, the world is now poised for this unprecedented achievement. The results speak for themselves. The number of polio cases worldwide has been cut dramatically in just over a decade. In 1988, according to WHO, there were an estimated 350,000 cases, of which only 10 per cent were actually reported. Unfortunately the goal of polio eradication by the year 2000 could not be achieved. All but 6 countries - India, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Niger, achieved elimination of WPVs by 2000. By the end of 2001, the number of polio cases had dropped to 537. Although the number of reported cases increased during 2002, due to polio outbreaks in India and Nigeria, the majority of these cases were concentrated in isolated areas thus giving an optimistic view for a world free of polio.

Polio eradication efforts in India

India officially committed itself to eradicate polio, supporting the WHO resolution to that effect, in the very same year 1988. India had more polio cases than any other country in the world. It was estimated that the Indian health care personnel officially reported to the government over 24,000 cases of polio, in reality there were probably many more cases that went unreported. The sight of children and adults with withered arms and legs throughout the cities, towns and villages of India was routine, and some of the major risk factors for polio virus transmission like crowding, poverty and poor sanitation were present in India to a degree not seen in most countries. India was slow to adopt the campaign of polio eradication. Some officials were skeptical of its implementation and argued that there were other more pressing health priorities in India and that the cost of polio eradication campaign would limit resources for providing health services to India’s general population. However India was able to commit to the program largely due to the influence of Dr John Andrus, an American from the US Public Health Services who arrived in India in 1993 as Regional Adviser for polio on the WHO/ SEARO (South East Asia Regional Office) staff and Dr Kaushik Banerjee, Director of India National Immunisation program in the Ministry of Family Welfare. They were ably supported by Dr Harshvardhan, who was then the Minister of Health with the Delhi government.

National Immunisation Days have been a common feature of the Indian Polio eradication programme for quite some time now. Each year more than 170 million children, under the age 5, are vaccinated on these days and nearly a billion doses of oral polio vaccines are administered annually. Indian polio eradication campaign, which was an epidemiologic challenge of unprecedented proportion, tells an inspiring story. The milestone for eradicating polio in India has been the result of a persistent and focused effort and unprecedented collaboration among scientists, administrators and international collaborators. This campaign combined cutting edge research on vaccines and door to door follows up, public and private outreach, political desire and relentless surveillance. Polio eradication programme in India was spear headed by the government of India, along with key partners WHO, UNICEF and Rotary International. The initial combat on polio came with the introduction of universal immunisation programme in 1985. Under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), more Indian children were provided oral polio vaccine (OPV) than ever before in history.
This campaign later on involved more than 2 million volunteers besides the Indian chapters of Rotary International. This campaign reached 87 million children during the national immunisation days in 1995 and 1996 and in the very next year it reached 125 million.

The number of reported polio cases dropped from over 24,000 in 1988-89 to less than 5,000 in 1993-94. Although this was encouraging, the government of India soon responded to the need to intensify the polio eradication effort and accordingly developed the Pulse Polio Immunization (PPI) strategy. The key innovation in this programme was utilization of mass immunization campaigns to supplement the routine immunization activities. The state of Delhi under the leadership of Dr Harshvardhan was the first area to adopt a PPI component in 1994. The first round of National Immunization Day (NID) programme was held in late 1995, which was followed with a second round in early 1996. Children under the age of 5 years were invited to take polio drops. Over 500,000 booths were set up nationally during the first NID programme, and on a single day a total of 87 million children received the vaccine. The scope and intensity of mobilization utilized for this activity has been unprecedented in the annals of the health initiatives in India, and possibly, the world.
To understand this remarkable achievement, it is important to comprehend the scale of the efforts made to meet this gigantic challenge. At the same time as the NIDs were being initiated, it became clear to the government that better information on polio cases was necessary to complete the job of polio eradication. The government of India and the WHO developed a collaborative unit, the National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), to provide accurate and rapid surveillance information on polio cases in India. There is now a systematic methodical tracking of cases, finding the source of the infection and flooding infected area with massive doses of polio vaccines. Beginning in 1997, NPSP has supported over 300 surveillance medical officers throughout India to coordinate polio surveillance activities. In addition to NPSP network, a regional laboratory network of 9 highly qualified Indian research centres provides rapid and accurate analysis of samples from patients.
Polio cases came down to 265 in the year 2000 and in the backward state of Orissa it came down from 45 to Nil.  In the year 2002 polio bounced back and the cases reported were 1600. The number of cases of polio in the year 2005 was 66 and during the years 2006 to 2009 they ranged from 550 to 874. Once again the year 2010 was very effective and polio cases came down to just 43 cases. Last recorded case of wild polio virus infection was witnessed in Jan 2011.  The major players in the global polio eradication initiative (GPEI) include the WHO, CDC, UNICEF and Rotary International and private donors like the Gates Foundation. India accounts for 32% of financial requirements for the GPEI. India has financed a cumulative total of 1 Billion US $ for polio eradication between 2003 and 2010. India has spent 79% of the campaign cost between 2011 and 2013. International funding has supported social mobilisation.  Gates Foundation was the largest donor and other agencies include WHO, UNICEF and the start up contributions from DANIDA and Rotary International.

On completion of third complete year of wild polio free India,  the WHO declared India as a polio free nation on the 27th March 2014. It is time we celebrate and hail all those sung and unsung heroes who made this possible.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Jack Kilby : The Gentle Giant of miniaturisation.

Yesterday we had a lecture How Indians won the Silicon Valley, which was delivered by Shivanand Kanavi, former VP, TCS and a visiting Professor to NIAS. The response from the students was overwhelming. This has tempted me to post a link to some of my published articles, which include my tribute to Jack Kilby (page 27 in the link) who won the Nobel Prize for the IC and another article on Gordon Moore his Law and IC page (35 in the second link)

https://vigyanprasar.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/English35.pdf
https://vigyanprasar.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/English46.pdf

Battle of Gallipoli and Henry Moseley

The Battle of Gallipoli & Henry Moseley: The single most costly death of the war.

Yesterday, I had plans to write about the Armistice - the closure of the World War 1 (WW1) - that ended on the 11th of Nov 1918. But then, I had to change my plans to make way for an Eulogy to T N Seshan, who passed away on the 10th November. Notwithstanding the Maharashtra तमाशा, that is getting played out all across the media, I am tempted to pen this article in memory of Henry Moseley, a gifted scientist, who became a victim of the bloody WW1. 

Among the millions of soldiers who perished in World War 1, were our very own brethren - the Indian Soldiers - who fought under the British against the enemy on several battle fronts, including in the epic battle  of Gallipoli. War is the single most idiosyncratic, disgusting beastly human greed for conquest, which if not controlled can lead to disastrous consequences as evidenced in the two World Wars. One of those millions of soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in service of their motherland, during the World War 1, was the genetically gifted genius scientist, Henry Moseley. In the words of Issac Asimov, ‘Moseley’s death is the single most costly death of the war’. Although I had written about it in brief earlier, I am tempted to write again. 

This year - 2019 - has been declared as the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) in memory of the 150th year of the discovery of the PT by the legendary Russian chemist - Mendeleev. However, the modern periodic table, which is omnipresent in all schools and colleges and science labs, owes its genesis to the contributions of a genetically gifted British Scientist, Henry Moseley, whose findings - rightly called the Moseley’s Law - made this possible. Moseley was one of those millions of soldiers, who died in the Gallipoli battle (WW1)on the 10th of August 1915, at a very young age - 27 years. In his untimely death, the whole of humanity was robbed of Moseley’s genius scientific contributions. His death is all the more poignant for what he might have achieved, had it not been for the senseless WW1. In just 40 months of his scientific research career, Moseley created the basis for the modern periodic table by predicting the elements that would fill in the gaps and showed that x-rays could be a supreme analytical tool.

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley, fondly known to his family as Harry, comes from an extraordinarily gifted family with scientific connect. His father, Henry Nottidge Moseley, was a naturalist and a Professor at the Oxford, who  was part of the scientific team on the famous Challenger Expedition, which was one of the preeminent expeditions conducted between 1872 and 1876. It was the first expedition, which was organised specifically to gather data on a wide range of ocean features, including ocean temperatures, seawater chemistry, currents, marine life, and the geology of the seafloor.  Moseley’s grandfather too had connect with science. He was a conchologist (a zoology scientist dealing with the shells of mollusks) and fellow of the famed Royal Society. Harry, as a child, exhibited great interest in science and with his sister, painstakingly surveyed surrounding countryside to catalog as much of the native flora and fauna as he could find. His childhood interest in science clearly foretold what great future of scientific research lies ahead for him. But most unfortunately the Gallipoli battle abruptly and most tragically cut short his bright scientific career.

Ever since the findings in 1869, by Mendeleev, the Periodic Table relied on the concept of atomic weight for the positions of the chemical elements. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev had examined the chemical properties of each element, and grouped those with similar properties together. However, in a few notable cases – such as that of argon and potassium – Mendeleev had to break the sequence of atomic weight to keep similar properties in the same groups. These ‘pair reversals’ raised logical questions on the principle of using atomic weight as the basis for the periodic table. It was not until the arrival of Moseley, on the scientific scene, that this problem was scientifically and rationally solved. Moseley through his ground breaking experiments formulated a law (later befittingly called the Moseley’s law), which proved (what Bohr and others had suspected) that the frequency of x-rays is proportional to the atomic charge. The elements could now be ordered according to their atomic number and the mystery thus solving the mystery of the ‘pair reversals’ and leading to what we now use - the Modern Periodic Table, which is based on the atomic number and not the atomic weight. This paved the way for creating and positioning gaps in the periodic table, where elements of a certain atomic number were found to be missing. This path breaking finding by Moseley laid the groundwork for a vast treasure hunt of hitherto unknown chemical elements that were discovered much later by chemists after more than 30 years of searching for the missing elements. Moseley’s scientific prediction for new elements had worked the way he had professed. 

Most unfortunately the Battle of Gallipoli abruptly ended the life of Moseley, thus eluding humanity of his future scientific contributions. The very battle of Gallipoli which took the life of Moseley has a deep connecting scar with India. While researching for curating the “Cricket Connects : India Australia”, I came across the historic connect that Indian soldiers shared with the Australians during the Battle of Gallipoli, which also took the life of many Indian soldiers alongside that of Moseley. The Indian and Australian soldiers, referred to as the ANZAC (Australia, New Zealand Army Corps), fought shoulder to shoulder during the World War I at Gallipoli under the British flag. Fighting alongside the ANZAC were the British soldiers which included Henry Moseley. The extent of the Indian participation in Gallipoli has come to light post the book “ Die in Battle Do Not Despair- The Indians in Gallipoli, 1915”, by the distinguished  Australian historian, Professor Peter Stanley.  Moseley and the Indian soldiers (ANZACs) fought in the trenches and on the frontline and in the process thousands perished, including Moseley, and several thousand more were either wounded or scarred for life. While the battle itself was a defeat for the ANZAC, the soldiers were relentless in their heroic gallantry and displayed incredible valour, courage and endurance in the most hostile environment in which this battle was fought.

Why and how Moseley got entangled in the battle of Gallipoli is now history. Young scientist Moseley, accompanied by his mother, had gone for a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Australia. The news of the declaration of war reached Australia. The young Moseley felt it was his duty to join his soldier brethren to join this war and fight for his country. His mother, family and friends tried hard to persuade him to change his mind. Unfortunately Moseley’s patriotic feelings and love for his country ensured that the advice of friends and family fell on his deaf ears. He rushed back to his country and left Australia on a ship for San Francisco from where he caught the first train to New York. From there he went home to England and enlisted his name in the British Army and obtained a commission as lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. Moseley was posted to Gallipoli, where he joined the ANZAC to take on the mighty Turkish Ottoman Empire. It was on the ill fated day - August 10, 1915 - Moseley was in the midst of sending a military order from the deadly trenches of the Gallipoli Peninsula, when he was hit on the head by the sniper’s bullet, which unfortunately killed him. He was just 27 years of age and waiting to celebrate his 28th birthday that was three months away. With the death of Moseley the world of science lost one of its greatest minds, in the trenches of Gallipoli. 

The international scientific community was outraged at the loss of Moseley, who had so much to offer for the cause of science and in the benefit of society, which was not to be. His death raised a question, whether genius scientists, whose service could otherwise be used for the greater good of the nation, should really be risked on the battle field. Perhaps the world learnt hard lessons from the death of Moseley. The outcome was no scientists were directly involved in WW2. However the scientists did play a decisive role but not directly in combat. The scientists were used in a completely different way in the WW II including in the infamous Manhattan project. It was during the WW2,  that the scientists - for better or worse - developed among other applications radar, programmable computers, atomic bomb, Penicillin etc. These war applications by scientists had much greater impacts on World War II than what the scientists could contribute by serving in the front line, which Moseley did. 

Next  time when you look at the Periodic Table, please do spare a thought and offer prayers for Moseley, who made his supreme sacrifice in service of his motherland foregoing the brightest of scientific career that was welcoming him. 

T N Seshan

T N Seshan: The Architect, who revolutionised the Election Commission of India. 

Sometime, during April last year, a fake news of T.N. Seshan’s death had gone viral on the social media. Yesterday night when I received a forwarded message announcing the death of T N Seshan, I was hoping against hope that this message too is a fake news, but then it was not to be. Seshan indeed had breathed his last in his Chennai home, yesterday night (10/11/2019) - on the auspicious birth day (Milad –Un – Nabi) of Prophet Mohammad. Leaders cutting across party lines, including Shri Narendra Modi, the Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, Ms Mamta Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal and several other leaders including the Election Commission, paid homage to the departed soul by tweeting their condolence messages with outstanding praise for Seshan’s contribution to the Indian democracy. Seshan’s contributions to the Election Commission can best be seen in the words of former Chief Election Commissioner, T.S. Krishna Murthy, who in his book “Miracle of Democracy: India’s Amazing Journey,” has termed Seshan’s tenure a “turning point” in the history of Election Commission. He says “If the history of Election Commission is written, it has to be divided into two parts; pre Seshan era, where the Commission functioned as a department of the government,  and post-Seshan era, when the Commission became truly independent”. 

In recognition of his contribution, Seshan has come to be known as the father of electoral reforms in India. Seshan assumed the unassuming office of the Chief Election Commissioner (10th CEC to do so) on 12 December, 1990 and served till 11 December 1996. During this crucial period of Indian democracy, Seshan had seen five Prime Ministers of India. Until Seshan became the CEC, the Election Commission (EC) was hardly known to few people and most of the elections remained largely under the shadow of political bigwigs. All this was to change -  and change for good and for ever - with the entry of T. N. Seshan. Every political party and their leaders, including the  high and mighty politicians, were compelled to accept the authority of Election Commission - a constitutional body, which has a mandate for conducting free and fair elections. Seshan brought about revolutionary changes in the functioning of the EC and introduced many electoral reforms. He gave a slogan "Nobody dare violate the law,” to highlight the unbending powers of the EC and on several occasions he demonstrated that the EC is not a toothless tiger. His actions were desisted by many political parties and almost every one of them stood against what they called a “dictatorial attitude” of the CEC.  But then Seshan remained undeterred.

Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan, popularly known as T. N. Seshan, was born on the 15th December, 1932 in Thirunellai, Palakkad District, Kerala. He belonged to the 1955 batch of IAS officers from the Tamil Nadu cadre. He is an alumnus of the Madras Christian College, where he did his graduation in Physics. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard University from where he completed a course in management in the 1960s. Seshan began his civil service career from his home state, Tamil Nadu, which was largely uneventful. The only time he came to lime light was when he  very sternly handled the anti-Hindi agitation while he was the Madurai District Collector (1965-67). K. Govindan Kutty, in his book ‘Seshan: An Intimate Story (1994),’ talks about this incident and states that the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Bakthavatsalam, was flooded with complaints of suppression of civil rights by Seshan, while handling the agitation. Fortunately, Seshan did not face any trouble for his action, which had infuriated local people. 

Seshan, while serving the Tamil Nadu government, held positions such as Industries Secretary and Agriculture Secretary (1977-80). His differences with the political masters in Tamilnadu compelled him to opt for a Central posting. Mr. Seshan held several important senior positions in the Centre including Environment and Forests Secretary, Secretary (Security) and Defence Secretary. Seshan went on to occupy the pinnacle post of bureaucracy - the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India during Rajiv Gandhi’s time. Unfortunately when Rajiv Gandhi lost power in 1989, and VP Singh became the Prime Minister, Seshan was shunted out of the post of Cabinet Secretary and was given a side posting  as a Member in the Planning Commission.  But then the VP Singh government could not survive for long and gave way for Chandra Shekhar, who became the Prime Minister with the support of Rajiv Gandhi, with whom Seshan had cordial relations. This came as a blessing in disguise for Seshan, and he moved out from the Planning Commission and was appointed as the CEC, in December 1990.  

Seshan Assumed the office of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of the Election Commission - Nirvachan Bhavan – on 12.12.1990, a historic day, which must get etched into the annals of Indian electoral reforms. In a span of six years of his tenure as the CEC, Seshan, completely transformed the Election Commission.  Unfortunately, before the entry of Seshan into the picture, the Indian electioneering system was infamously known for the rapid criminalisation of politics, evils of booth capturing, rigging, poll violence etc. all of which had got embedded into the electioneering system in India and the electorates had begun to curse the system and get used to the corrupt practices of the system. Seshan realised that urgent and extraordinary corrective measures are to be taken to cleanse the system and to bring credibility to the Election Commission of India. 

Managing the Indian elections  is a Himalayan task with monumental challenges. It involves, among other things, operating some 8,00,000 plus voting booths; some five million plus personnel - in addition to a large contingent of security force - who are necessary for conducting free and fair elections across our vast country. The Election Commission of India has been very successfully conducting election after elections with relatively lesser complaints and the credit for this must go to T N Seshan. India is now proud of being the largest democracy in the world, with its unique electioneering success that is demonstrated regularly during the periodical elections that are held in either the states or the national elections. This achievement, for which Seshan deserves major credit, is no mean a task when considered with some of the unfavourable circumstances that exists in India, which include far remote corners, the Naxalite problems, relatively lower literacy rate and vast economic disparities among its people.

Seshan was the 10th CEC of India, who served during the period 1990–96. When Seshan was appointed as the CEC, the post was considered as an ornamental position, which most career officers, including Seshan, desisted. Seshan, who had occupied decorated positions, like the Home and Cabinet Secretary, was not very happy with this posting. Like many of his IAS colleagues, Seshan too was of the opinion that CEC was an insignificant posting for a decorated IAS officer and that this posting came with neither power nor financial benefits. Utterly disappointed with his new posting, Seshan, a highly religious man who revered the Kanchi Seer, went to meet Swami Paramacharya,  the then Kanchi Seer, to seek his advice and blessings on this matter. The highly respected Kanchi Seer Paramacharya – who was 97 years of age - immediately sensed the cause of Seshan’s disappointment and counselled him to treat the new posting as a God sent opportunity to serve the Indian electorate. He advised Seshan to visit the Uthiramerur temple (near Kanchi) and study the details of electoral regulations prevalent in India, some 1000 years ago. The Seer informed  Seshan, that even if he were to implement a tenth of the electoral reforms that are enshrined with clarity and minute details in the Uthiramerur temple, he would be doing the greatest of service to the Indian democracy and to the electorates. The sermons of the Kanchi seer had a great impact on Seshan and the rest we all know is now history. 

Of the many reforms that Seshan brought about in the Indian electoral system, some of the prominent ones, which even today are considered as Seshan’s commandments, include; no bribe or intimidation to the voters, no distribution of liquor, no usage of official machinery for campaigning, no appeal to the voters in the name of religion, caste or communal lines, not to use the places of worship for the campaigns, no usage of loud speakers without the explicit written permission, no defacing of public property for political hoardings and posters, limited money spending and many other extraordinary reforms, which were unheard of in the electoral system in India. All of us take these commandments for a given now, but then when Seshan became the CEC, things were completely different.  Seshan introduced a mechanism of temporarily deputing state employees to the Election Commission, during the election time. He came down heavily on employees who took their duties lightly by arguing that once the officials were assigned to the Election Commission, they fell under his jurisdiction and it was within his power to deal with the erring officials. This resulted in the entire election machinery functioning without fear or favour and ensured that the personnel deployed for the election performed their duties honestly and efficiently. Many local bureaucrats, who were seen as the puppets of local politicians until Seshan’s entry, soon realised that they will face the wrath of the Election Commission, which could affect their long term career, turned a new leaf and started functioning with utmost honesty and sincerity. Seshan ensured that the bureaucracy was not targeted by the political class, helping the EC to not only be fair but also seen to be fair. This aspect was absolutely essential to neutralise the influence of the powerful local politicians on the administrative mechanism of the EC. Seshan remained a tough task master and never alluded to any of the illegal demands of the political class, an evidence of which can be seen in his decision of cancelling the 1992 elections in Bihar and Punjab. It sent out a very strong message “no messing around with the Election Commission”. He ensured that the model code of conduct was implemented in letter and spirit by all the political parties and candidates.

Seshan’s no nonsense approach was despised by almost all politicians and all of them joined hands to try and cut him to size. This led to the formation of a multimember body for managing the EC, which was formed in October 1993, with the appointment of M.S. Gill and G.V.G. Krishnamurty as Election Commissioners. Seshan opposed the government’s move, but then the Supreme Court upheld the government’s decision to appoint two additional Election Commissioners. The appointment of additional ECs did not deter Seshan from implementing his vision for the EC, for which he is remembered even today and will be so for eternity.

Seshan did not fade into oblivion, immediately after laying down the office of CEC in December 1996. In July 1997, Seshan unsuccessfully contested the presidential election against K.R. Narayanan and lost. Two years later, Seshan contested the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency against the then Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, as a Congress candidate and lost. 

Seshan was also associated closely with Department of Space, where he served as the Joint Secretary. It was during this period that he came to know Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. There is another anecdote of Seshan’s association with Dr Kalam, which was revealed by President Kalam himself in one of his books. The period goes back to the time when Dr Kalam was with the DRDO and they were given a go ahead to test the Agni Missile in May 1989. Dr Kalam says in his book “ that Seshan, who was then the Cabinet Secretary, called Dr Kalam from his hotline in the dead of the night at around 3 AM on 22nd May, 1989, and asked Kalam to defer the launch of the Agni missile. The decision had come from the top as a result of the tremendous pressure from US and NATO. It was a difficult instruction for Kalam to obey since it was too late to cancel the missile launch. In his book “Advantage India: From Challenge to Opportunity”, one of the last book written by Dr Kalam, President Kalam talks about this incident. Dr. Kalam writes that he informed Seshan “Sir, the missile is at a point of no return. We cannot turn back on the test now. It is too late”. Dr Kalam says that Seshan, with a deep breath and a pause, said ‘Go ahead’.  Three hours later, the Agni missile system was flawlessly test launched on May 22, 1989. 

The mortal remains of Seshan will soon be confined to fire, but then his monumental contributions to the Election Commission will ever remain in the hearts and minds of people for generations to come. Rest in Peace Mr Seshan. 

Judgment Day for Team India : United we have stood amidst multitudes of diversity, and united we must

This day, 9th November, 2019 - the Indian 9/11- has witnessed two historical events - a landmark 1045 page judgement, which has been unanimously delivered by the Supreme Court bench, comprising of Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi and his brother judges, justices S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer and an equally important opening of the Kartarpur corridor by the Indian Prime Minister from our side (who statesmanly acknowledged, recognised and appreciated his counterpart from Pakistan)  and the Pakistani Prime Minister on the other side. Hopefully these two events are destined to bridge crevices between the two communities - Hindus and Muslims - in India and so also between the two warring states - India and Pakistan - and help the two communities and the two countries to look beyond and not behind.

Now that the apex court has delivered an unanimous verdict on the century old dispute, it is the bounden duty of all Indians to accept the Supreme Court judgement, irrespective of each of our prejudices, likes and dislikes and uphold the rule of law and bring finality to the divisive litigation, which had plagued India for long and divided people. What is most heartening is, barring a few aberrations, the whole of India has showed poise and maturity and an outstandingly nation first stand has been taken by the people to avoid any communal or other disturbances. What is more pleasing is the fact that all the leading political parties and their leaders and so also other leaders and influencers of Indian society, the litigants, media etc have accepted the Supreme Court Judgement, and have more or less collectively taken a stand to respect the decision of the Supreme Court and have also appealed to their followers to maintain unity and harmony in the country. It is also time for all of us to look beyond the century old litigation, and strive that much harder to exemplify the ‘Unity in Diversity’ for which this great nation of ours is known for thousands of years. The plurality of Indian democracy lies not just in the multi-religiosity that is integral to this nation, but so also the diversity that is seen in language, traditions, food, culture etc., which is what India is made of.

Central to the beauty and vibrancy of the Indian democracy are the diversity of the Indian electorates - Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, religious and non religious, the rich and mighty, the powerful and powerless, the poor and the insignificant, the lettered and unlettered, sheltered and unsheltered, the males, females and the transgender’s, the believers and non believers, young, middle aged, old and the very old - all of them cohabit  the nation and stand as equal citizens.  The Indianness of the people and their unity in diversity is an age old tradition which can best be seen in the Cricket team that represented India, when it made its debut in the international test cricket in 1932.

India was  baptised in to International Cricket  in 1932, when they played against England in England. The unity in diversity that India is known for was witnessed in the team that represented India in the Inaugural Test. The team selection for India’s maiden test debut was shrouded in controversy and mystery. Despite all the intrigue over captaincy and team selection, a young Indian side of 18 members was selected for undertaking their inaugural international tour to England in 1932. The All-India team that was selected to travel to England, was a microcosm of the diversity that constitutes this great nation.  The Indian team was a team of contrast with diversity in socio, religious and cultural practices. The 18 players spoke eight to ten different languages among them,  and belonged to four or five different castes. The team was truly multi-religious and consisted of six Hindus, five Muslims, four Parsees and two Sikhs. The players also had their own contrasting beliefs and cultural traditions and practices. The Muslims forswear alcohol by religion and most of the other members did so by choice. The Sikhs, who played cricket in turbans, similarly forswear smoking by their religion. The Hindus foreswear not to eat beef, and the Mohammedans pork and ham, due to their religious beliefs and practices. The team with just eighteen members had so much of diversity in terms of religion, customs and traditions, yet they remained one as Team India. The Indian cricket team, notwithstanding their diversity, played as one nation and administered few shocks to the dignity and confidence of team England - which had just beaten the mighty Australian team that was led by the legendary Don Bradman - when they rattled them in the initial period of the game.

The extraordinary unity which was witnessed among the players who were divided in religion, culture, traditions and language is what must become a beacon for the whole of India today as we move towards post Ayodhya verdict. In the context of the narratives that may get played out by some divisive forces, in the days and months to come, which may try and divide us and create violence, it is hoped that the extraordinary unity and spirit that team India exhibited in 1932 repeats all across the country. It is further hoped that the country leaves behind this issue, which was dividing us, and move forward as one nation towards a better India.

Jai Hind
stand.