The Rediff Special
The Seshan Legacy
T N Seshan retired as India's Chief Election Commissioner on Wednesday. What is this most amazing man's legacy to the Indian people?
Instant populism, personal popularity or a system that works better in the long term?
Those advertisements of Safal Foods on television showing him tearing
into a carrot may not carry the same bite any more. News channels
will miss this producer of ever-good copy. Photographers having
their cameras meddled with, or reporters getting thrown out on
a whim, may not derive the malicious please recounting these things
in their newspaper's front page as they would if the principal
accused had been T N Seshan.
On December 11, Seshan ended his six year term as chief election
commissioner. And yes, for better or for worse, he is going to
be missed.
Joint secretaries during the lunch hour on Raisina Hill will no
longer trade stories of the humiliation of a particularly-disliked
chief secretary of a state government at the hands of T N Seshan.
Nor will there be sush-sushing like at the plight of another chief
secretary of Uttar Pradesh, upright and very competent, exposed
to Seshan's explosive wrath, however, because of the presence
of a state information department cameraman at a meeting.
Imagine, too, the relief of any DIG in Kashmir at no more having
Seshan in a delegation of the top three men of the Election Commission.
Last November, Seshan pounced on one such officer in Srinagar.
He had, admittedly stupidly, placed a tape recorder behind where
Seshan was sitting. Seshan, now, is paranoid about his security,
even though the home ministry has no knowledge of any threat to
him, and he began roughing up the DIG.
In the hushed silence all around, Seshan said the DIG was not
fit to be a constable. When the DIG explained that he didn't wish
to disturb Seshan or block his view checking for the recording
or changing the tape in the recorder, Seshan asked him to jump
into the Dal Lake. Seshan grew redder in the face after hearing
from the DIG that J&K Governor General K V Krishna
Rao, had ordered the taping. With Seshan going, the IPS will breathe
easy.
And what of the politicians? Lofty comments to the press are one
thing. But, inside themselves, Ghulam Nabi Azad or Balram Jakhar,
for instance, will be glad to see him go. Seshan very nearly cancelled
their Rajya Sabha membership for being elected; then, from states
they were not People's Representation Act, requires. And Manmohan
Singh? He is not churlish. Nor is he a vendetta man. But he can't
be forgetting the fright Seshan gave him placing him on a par
with Ghulam Nabi and company.
And what about Sitaram Kesri? Nor is he likely to forget Seshan
so easily. The CEC wanted him debarred from attending Cabinet
meetings because he announced reservation for 'backward' Muslims
just before a set of crucial assembly elections. And Narasimha
Rao is going to remember that Seshan called him a worm in an interview
to India Today (predictably denied later). Nor is Jyoti Basu going
to feel kindly towards him. (They fought over voter identity cards)
Neither Laloo Prasad Yadav. (Same reason) Ditto Jayalalitha. And
Subramanian Swamy. Sharad Pawar. Pranab Mukherjee. Bhajan Lal...
The list is long.
What sort of man is T N Seshan to have made so many enemies in
six years? How many of these enemies flowed from sound principles?
Did he really cleanse the election process? Does he leave behind
a system that is better -- and way more unbuckable than the one
one inherited?
Courtesy: Sunday magazine
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