#33 TN Seshan : The Historic Cheif Election Commissioner of India!

TN Seshan (Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan) once described himself in his own words - "I belong to that race of  human beings called Palghat Brahmins, of whom four types are found - cooks, cheats, civil servants and musicians. I understand that I have these few qualities, I'm a good cook, I'm also a bit of a cheater, I'm a civil servant, I may not be a musician but I have an understanding of music."

TN Seshan

It is a matter of 1972, Homi Sethna, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, spoiled the confidential report of TN Seshan, who was working on the post of higher secretary in the department, in defense of this Seshan defended himself and wrote a 10 page letter to the Cabinet Secretary D. Swaminathan, he had written requesting that the remarks made against him be removed from his confidential report.

Homi Sethna

Three months later, he got a call from the Prime Minister's office that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted to meet her, when Seshan entered her South Block office, she was writing something on the file.

Seshan wrote in his autobiography 'Through The Broken Glass' - 'Indira Gandhi raised her head from the file and asked me - so you are Seshan? Why is Sethna angry with you? I humbly replied - Madam, I have not told this to anyone till date, there are serious differences between Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Sethana, I was working with Vikram, so Sethna has turned against me. Indira asked - Are you aggressive in nature?

I replied - If I am given any work, I complete it aggressively.

Indira Gandhi's next question was - Why do you behave rudely with people? I said, if some work is not done within the given time then my behavior gets weird.

Indira again asked - Do you threaten people? I said, I'm not that kind of person.

Indira Gandhi told her assistant - call him. Then Homi Sethna entered Indira Gandhi's office, Indira asked him in front of me - Why have you written all this in the confidential report of this young fellow?

Then she looked at me as if saying, What are you doing here now?

I felt that Indira Gandhi was also angry with me but after 10 days I got a letter from the government that all the adverse entries against me have been removed from my confidential report.

When TN Seshan became the Chief Election Commissioner, Law Minister Vijay Bhaskar Reddy started asking the Election Commission to answer questions asked in Parliament. Seshan strongly opposed this, he made it clear that the Election Commission is not a department of the government, Vijay Bhaskar took the issue to Prime Minister Narsimha Rao. 

TN Seshan writes in his autobiography - 'Reddy told me in the presence of the Prime Minister, that Seshan, you are not cooperating, I replied - I'm not a cooperative society, I represent the Election Commission, the Prime Minister was shocked to hear this. Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said - Mr. Prime Minister, if this is the attitude of your ministers, then I cannot work with them.

Similarly, once Law Secretary Rama Devi called the Election Commission and said that Minister of State for Law Rangarajan Kumar Mangalam wants that the by-election of Etawah should not be held now. 

Seshan writes - 'I called the Prime Minister directly and said that the government probably has a misconception that I'm a horse and the government is a horseman, I will not accept this, if you have a good reason to implement a decision, tell me. I will give my decision after thinking about it, but I will not follow any order.

After listening to me, the Prime Minister said - You settle your matter with Rangarajan. I said I will settle this matter with you and not with him, I would like Rangarajan to apologize to me for trying the decision of the Election Commission.

If we don't know about something like if there has been a drought, there has been a draught, if there has been a flood, if there has been a plague, the you tell us that we can't hold elections but you can't tell me to do this and not do that.

The same day Rangarajan called me and started asking me in Tamil - What is the matter? I said - you apologize to me. On the same day around 12 o'clock, a Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Law came running to the Election House with a letter from the Law Secretary, it was written in this letter, whatever I have said or written, I apologize to you for that.

On August 2, 1993, TN Seshan issued a 17 page order that said - No elections would be held in the country until the government recognized the powers the Election Commission. Seshan wrote in his order that the Election Commission has decided that every election under its control, including the Rajya Sabha elections to be held every two years, Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha by-elections, which have been announced will be postponed till further orders. 

TN Seshan did not allow elections to the Rajya Sabha seat of West Bengal, due to which Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee had to resign. West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu was so angry with this that he even called Seshan a rabid dog.

By  the way, people upset with him behind his back started calling Seshan as Alsatian.

On October 1, 1993, when Seshan was in Pune, the government appointed Jeeviji Krishnamurti and MS Gill as the new Election Commissioners, the salary of these new Election Commissioners was aslo fixed at par with that of TN Seshan. Former Supreme Court judge HR Khanna criticized the ordinance saying that it should have been discussed in the Parliament first. Famous jurist Fali Nariman had said - All this has been done to reduce the power of the Chief Election Commissioner, this will definitely affect his autonomy.

GVG Krishnamurthy, MS Gill & TN Seshan (left to right).

The first meeting of the three Election Commissioners did not go well.

Seshan writes - Krishnamurti came to my room and was lying on the sofa in the corner. He went with and asked me to sit on the sofa, I joined my hands and said - I'm fine where I'm sitting. krishnamurti said on this - I refrained from sitting on the chairs lying in front of your table, as all these are for your peons. Then Gill entered the room, Krishnamurti said to Gill - Gill, don't sit on the chair in front of him, instead tell him to sit on the sofa.

Gill asked me - Do you have any objection to coming and sitting on the sofa? I said, otherwise I would have sat on the sofa but on the carpet also, but not today.

Then Krishnamurti started abusing me, meanwhile Gill stood, he did not understand whether he should sit on the sofa next to Krishnamurti or on the chair in front of me, after that Krishnamurti raised his left leg and put it on the table, then he came to me and said - Do you want to shake hands with me? I remained silent, after that both of them got up from the room and left.

The next day it appeared in the newspapers that both Krishnamurti and Gill walked out from my office, TN Seshan did not cooperate with these two Election Commissioners, when he went to America he handed over his charge to Deputy Election Commissioner DS Bagga instead of these two. This decision of Seshan was challenged in the Supreme Court ordered, then the Supreme Court ordered that in the absence of Seshan, MS Gill will act as the Chief Election Commissioner.

A warm handshake with Rajiv Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi was perhaps the only persons among politicians who liked Seshan, when Seshan was the Forest and Environment Secretary, he had the habit of going to office even on leave.

On October 2, 1986, he was watching a cricket match on television in his office when the cricket commentary suddenly stopped coming and a news flashed that a person fired at Rajiv Gandhi at Rajghat, Rajiv Gandhi summoned Seshan.

Seshan writes - When I reached his house there were policemen spread all around, Rajiv Gandhi told  me Seshan I want you to investigate yesterday's incident and hand over the report to me, I said that I have never done this type of work before, any other person will be able to do this work better than me, Rajiv said, that you speak fearlessly, you are not afraid of anyone, because of this I'm giving you this responsibility. I was given four weeks time to submit this report, I submitted a 150 page report to Rajiv Gandhi regarding the shortcomings in the security system and also suggested what more should be done for the security of the Prime Minister.

Two months later, on 15 December, Seshan received a call from the Prime Minister's office asking him to meet Rajiv Gandhi at Palam Airport.

A red colored bullet proof jeep had arrived at the Airport to receive Rajiv Gandhi, Rajiv himself sat on the driver's seat, Home Security Minister Chidambaram sat next to him, Seshan sat on the back seat.

Seshan writes - Rajiv said that you will have to implement the suggestions given for the Prime Minister's security, I asked him - How can I help you in this? Rajiv replied - By taking the security charge, Chidambaram sitting next to him said - This is a good suggestion, we will find another Forest and Environment Secretary in his place but Rajiv did not want this, he wanted me to look after both Environment and Security departments. A week later, an order to this effect was issued from the Cabinet Secretary's office.

To keep an eye on Rajiv's security, Seshan often started going to Rajiv's residence, gradually he came closer to Rajiv but Rajiv did not  take his security seriously, when the SPG act was made, there was a provision in it that the SPG in addition to taking responsibility for the Prime Minister's family members security also. Seshan went to Rajiv with a proposal that former Prime Ministers and their family members should also be included in this.

Seshan writes - I told Rajiv that today you are the Prime Minister, tomorrow you can step down from this post, but your life will still remain in danger, I gave him the example of America where the FBI kept the President's security charge even after his term expired and after his death, provides security to his family members too. But, Rajiv did not agreed to this, he felt that people would think that he was doing this for his personal interest. I tried to persuade him but did not succeed.

The very next day after VP Singh became the Prime Minister, a meeting was called to consider whether SPG cover should be given to Rajiv Gandhi and his family. As Cabinet Secretary Seshan suggested that Rajiv Gandhi should get the same security as he was getting as Prime Minister, but the VP Singh government did not agree to this.

Seshan with his wife Jayalakshmi Seshan.

On December 22, 1989, at 11:30 pm, a government hawker brought an envelope to TN Seshan on a motorcycle, in that envelope there was an order that he was being made a member of the Planning Commission instead of the Cabinet Secretary, Seshan was troubled by the fact that the Prime Minister did not even have the courtesy of telling him before taking this decision. When Chandrashekhar became the Prime Minister after the fall of VP Singh's government, he offered to make Seshan the Cabinet Secretary again but Seshan told him that he was going to retire soon.

Then Chandrashekhar sent an offer to him to become the Chief Election Commissioner through Subramanyam Swamy. Seshan consulted former Prime Minsiter Rajiv Gandhi and former President R. Venkatramana about this, both of them said to accept this offer only if no other offer is received, after this Seshan took the advice of the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, the Shankaracharya said that this is a reputed post, it should be taken by Seshan.

On Decemeber 10, 1990, an order was issued for TN Seshan to become the ninth Chief Election Commissioner of India, further events are history.

“T.N. Seshan proved that a single individual, armed with integrity and conviction, can transform an institution and alter the course of a nation’s democracy. As history remembers him, one truth remains evident: institutions are strengthened not by the powers they possess, but by the courage with which those powers are exercised.”

The future depends on what you do today. — Mahatma Gandhi