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.