The Rediff Interview /T N Seshan

'I do not want the perquisites of office, I do not want 8,000 telephone calls, petroleum gas connections, airline reservations...'

Please tell us something about your Desabhakta movement. What exactly do you want to do by starting the movement?

Regeneration of India. What I want to do can be said only in three or four parts. Part one, the Gandhian philosophy. In simple terms, what I want is regeneration of India. But you can't do everything in one day or one week. So, you give priorities. We have made a list of a dozen things to do which in our view get top priority.

Priorities are different in different areas. In one place, it has to be child mortality, in another it has to be drinking water, and in another it will be a totally different problem. So, it has to be left to the local units of the movement to decide which items should be given top priority for them.

Corruption: Everyone agrees that it has to be routed out.

What about reforms in the education system? The purpose of education should be to give the child a chance to choose between the right and the wrong. The education should give a child the courage to say, this is right and this is wrong overtime he is faced with such a situation.

In one of your press releases, you had said that you are not after any position, power or money. But, would you be able to work as effectively as you want to without all these three?

What position did Gandhiji have? What power did Gandhiji have? I am not saying I am equal to Gandhiji. One should exercise authority, moral authority. I'll tell you, however small you may be, if you come to my room and say, Sir, this is wrong, you will exercise authority if right is one your side. And, you use politeness. I don't think all things in life are done on authority.

The authority you exercise outside power is far more effective and far more lasting than the authority you exercise within power to achieve our goal. But we will not allow children to come out of classrooms. To pull children out of classrooms is a crime. What we want in classrooms is dharma.

Why didn't you think of starting a political party?

What would it do? Let's assume, step by step. I launch a party, the Seshan party, then I get elected, and then what happens? There are 545 more people in the Lok Sabha. If I go as one out of 545 people in the Lok Sabha, how many hours would I get to speak? The House meets 1,000 days in five years, right? Divide 1,000 by 500. You get two days. All the other days you keep quiet.

Today, I am better off. And, you might permit me to speak about the colour of the air-hostesses's uniform or something equally important! How can I improve the country by deciding the colour of the air hostesses's uniform, by talking two days in five years, tell me. Then I will file a nomination in the next by-election.

When you start a political party, you will have members. Don't you think you will be able to perform better and achieve more then?

There are 550 political parties in the country already. Yours will be the 551st.

A different political party.

What is the difference? You say you are different and then go and buy the same wretched brown shirt. You ask any child what he thinks of today's politicians. What does he say? He is dishonest. He will make money the wrong way. He will do anything to capture power. He will do all kinds of things that even my mummy is not safe from him. So, he might say one more rascal has come. You kindly do a poll on this, come back and tell me. I may be wrong.

To the younger generation of India, you are like a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

I am telling you that I have no right to turn that light in the direction of politics. The same younger people today think that the very word politician is a dirty word. So, I don't want to wear that uniform. I do not want the perquisites of office, I do not want 8,000 telephone calls and petroleum gas connections, airline reservations, breaking the queue and all that. I don't need all that.

Do you see a bright future for India?

The question of considering an alternative to that is traitorous that I won't think about it. Old Poetry. Breathes there the man with soul so dead,/Who never to himself hath said,/This is my own, my native land! Even if somebody says my grandmother has cancer, I am not going to give her up.

Were you very patriotic when you were young also, or the feeling increased as years went by?

I was exactly the same. Do you find me patriotic now? I was exactly the same. Am I patriotic? I don't know. I am what I am.

Do you feel very strongly for your country?

I certainly feel strongly for the country. How can you not feel? I feel strongly for my mother. I feel as strongly for my country as I feel for my mother.

Did you start the Desabhakta movement because you felt it is your duty to your country?

Everybody has his own duty. As no other duty is visible to me now, I do it. Tomorrow if some other duty becomes obvious, I will drop this and do that duty. But today this is my primary duty, I feel.

If you do that, don't you think a whole generation might feel let down?

The country is not on my shoulders. There are 999.9999999 million other people to do it.

But, you must be aware that after you became the chief election commissioner, the younger generation looked up to you with hope.

Yes. Even today they do.

They look at you as the leader who can change things for them.

If this is what leadership is, I feel guilty.... No, it is a bad set of words. Let me say, I am delighted. Leadership means a whole lot of other things too. It needs vision, it needs purpose, it needs objective, it needs man management, it needs personal skill of communication, it needs courage, it needs ability, it needs strength to take decisions, it needs humility. Have I developed all of those?

What do you feel very emotional about?

Pain. Injustice. Suffering.

How do you react when you feel emotional?

I cry, nothing else. Cry in the sense, not sit down and make a noise and bawl, water trickling down the face... very rarely. You will see water trickling down my face as rarely as you see a smile on my face.

Do you feel sad when you cannot do anything to alleviate the pain and suffering that you see around you?

I certainly wish I could do more. I never felt I can do nothing at all. (Looks at the clock) I am giving you five minutes's deadline from now.

Is your Desabhakta movement coming up as you expected it to be?

I had no specific expectations. So, there is nothing I compare it with. Every moment is different. Sometimes it has gone faster, sometimes it has gone slower. But there was no specific deadlines placed saying, I must do this by such and such a date.

But people expect a lot from you.

I am not being impertinent or careless or indifferent when I say I am not responsible.

For their expectations?

That's what I said. Everybody who is pregnant must expect. But I am not pregnant.

Once you said, all Palghat brahmins are very good in three Cs.

No, four Cs. Cooks, crooks, civil servants and Carnatic music.

Are you a good cook?

I am a very good cook.

What is your specialty?

Any Kerala vegetarian food.

Do you like Carnatic music?

I have an extensive theoretical knowledge of Carnatic music. I listen to it, identify it.

Is Carnatic music a kind of relaxation for you, or that of enjoyment?

It is a spiral going inwards. It takes the soul further and further inwards. Therefore at least the music I love must be heard at the threshold of audibility, not like modern music which must be heard at the highest of sounds. I listen to music only if it is just heard. The music I enjoy best is classical, instrumental Carnatic.

One last question. Do you have any message for the younger generation of India?

Keep fighting. Don't yield. While you are students, studies are the only thing you can do well, and by studies I don't mean bookish studies, whatever that you want to learn -- photography, dance, music, art culture, romance. Be sensitive, be patriotic. Learn the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, and the courage to speak in favour of the right, one time, every time, irrespective of consequences. Seek help if you can't distinguish between right and wrong. If you are a rational human being, 99.9999% of what you see around can be rationally distinguished, between right and wrong without external help.

T N Seshan's photographs by Sanjay Ghosh

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