Tags:
Journalism of Courage
ONE OF the highlights of the Supreme Court’s recent hearings on the appointment of Election Commissioners was its reference to the contributions of late Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) T N Seshan.
Hearing petitions seeking reforms in the system of appointing election commissioners, the Court said a CEC should be someone “with character” who “does not allow himself to be bulldozed”, and that a person like the late T N Seshan “happens once in a while”.
The 10th CEC of India, Seshan headed the poll panel from December 12, 1990, to December 11, 1996 – serving the full tenure of six years. At its recent hearings, the Supreme Court also noted that few CECs had actually got to do that, with all appointees since 2004 retiring before that time.
Appointed to the Election Commission (EC) after retiring from the IAS, Seshan’s tenure is remembered for strengthening the independence of the EC apart from strict implementation of its rules. The Model Code of Conduct came to be as rigidly observed as it is now after Seshan.
He was also instrumental in introducing photo identity cards or Voter ID cards for voters, as a means to check fraudulent voting. While now almost all voters hold such cards, in 1995, when he announced the same, there was stiff opposition from political leaders, who insisted it could not be implemented in a country like India. Seshan also enforced spending limits on candidates during polls.
In 1993, during Seshan’s term, the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government expanded the EC to a three-member panel, with all commissioners holding equal powers, seen a move to rein in Seshan.
In a tribute to him after his death in 2019, the EC noted the change Seshan had brought about in office. “Shri Seshan redefined the very grammar of the electoral process. Holding the constitutional post of CEC, he enhanced the stature of the office by coming down heavily on electoral malpractices and dealing sternly, even ruthlessly, with violence and muscle power, which were at (an) all time high when he took over. He redeemed the autonomy and authority that the Constitution has bestowed upon ECI (Election Commission of India) under Article 324 of the Constitution. Refusing to act merely as manager of monitoring of electoral process, he started proactively purging the elections of their evils like money, liquor, muscle power, booth capturing etc,” the EC said.
Seshan, the poll panel added, was the right person at the right place and right time.
O P Rawat, who was the CEC from January 23, 2018, to December 1, 2018, told The Indian Express that while it was not appropriate to say that Seshan was “the only CEC” to have made a “sterling contribution”, his efforts were “singular”.
“The first democratic elections were conducted under Sukumar Sen at a time when the conditions were bad. Lakhs of people had migrated due to Partition, people were in refugee camps and were looking for their kin. Making the electoral roll at that time was a Herculean task. From the limited franchise in British India, with only four crore electors, we had over 17 crore electors in the first elections after Independence. With all those odds, the single-man commission conducted the elections in a free and fair manner and proved the British and all other critics wrong,” Rawat said, speaking of the first elections held in independent India in 1951 and 1952.
What Seshan achieved, Rawat added, was the revival of the reputation of the EC, which had taken a beating in the preceding decades. And in that regard, he said, the Supreme Court was right in recognising his role. “He brought many reforms and rose to the occasion.”
Rawat also pointed out that even J M Lyngdoh, who was the CEC from June 14, 2001 to February 7, 2004, had left his mark by ensuring free and fair elections in Gujarat in the aftermath of the 2002 riots. “So, it is not appropriate to say that only Seshan did a marvellous job.”
On the Supreme Court’s observation that the government seemed to pick officials near retirement age for the EC, apparently to ensure they didn’t have long tenures, Rawat said one way of checking this would be to increase the retirement age of an Election Commissioner from 65 to 67. Since bureaucrats retire at 60 from service, they would still get a six-year term if appointed to the poll panel, he said.
One reason Seshan was able to have a six-year term was that the retirement age for the IAS at that time was 58 and not 60 as it is now, Rawat noted.
After retiring from the EC, Seshan had taken on a different role in electoral politics. In 1997, he unsuccessfully contested the Presidential election against K R Narayanan, and in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, he was the Congress’s candidate against BJP leader L K Advani from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
