For easy-to-recall symbols,you have Sethi’s pen to thank

The Late M S Sethi,who retired from the ECI in September 1992,was the last draughtsman employed by the nodal body to sketch symbols.

Back then,Sethi and a team of ECI officials would sit together and think of daily objects that the common man could identify with. Many established symbols of political parties — bicycle,elephant,broom — were born of these sessions,ECI records reveal. Some not so familiar objects too were suggested by this group — a pair of glasses,a nail cutter and even a neck-tie,which was popularly worn by the English-speaking crowd post Independence.

As officials named objects in the meeting,Sethi would sketch them using his kit of HB pencils. In the late 1990s,almost a decade after Sethi’s retirement,the ECI compiled a collection of 100 of his sketches into a list,known today as the “free symbols”. This list is circulated during every election across the country.

K F Wilfred,principal secretary,ECI,said,“The post of a draughtsman was abolished after Sethi’s retirement. The present list of free symbols is made entirely of his designs.”

In 1996,during the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in which 1,033 candidates contested,the ECI allowed candidates to “modify” objects on Sethi’s list. After this,in the late 1990s,the list of symbols was “restricted” to 100.

Sethi retired in 1992,and,hence,most of the objects he designed were products of that era. ECI officials say people often mistake the TV set in the symbol list for a microwave.

“A mobile phone,or a SIM card is not likely to be included in the list any time soon,since of the 100 symbols,only six have been reserved by national parties so far,” Wilfred said.

State parties can only reserve their symbols in their respective states. To reserve a symbol,a political party has to field its candidates in more than 10 constituencies. Parties which do not fulfil this criteria have to choose from the list of free symbols. In subsequent elections,these symbols are declared free again.

With hardly any documented records on him,only scattered memories remain about the artist who continues to give identity to generations of politicians.

A different family stays at the house that is still recorded as Sethi’s official address in Sector 3,Rohini. The family bought the house from the Sethis over 10 years ago and has since been living here since then.

A few senior citizens,who were friends with Sethi,remember him as a soft-spoken artist,a painter. “Sethi died in the early 2000s,and his family left this flat in 2003. He only had one daughter. I remember he had a government job,but he did not talk about it much,” Mrs Joshi,who says she was friends with Sethi’s wife,recalled.

The property dealer who helped the Sethis sell their home remembers Sethi but knew little else about him. “I knew he was an artist,but I didn’t know that he had designed the election symbols. I used to see him painting in his corner at home and I thought he was a regular artist,” he said.

These last acquaintances of the Sethis do not remember names or faces of his family members. The local police station,the property dealers’ old records,the present staff at the ECI too have no clearer picture of the man to offer. For the ECI,he remains in the last four lines he wrote in his pension papers —his address.