Remembering TN Seshan on his 89th Birth Anniversary.

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana-Pawan Kumar Bansal

By our enlightened reader Natrajan Bala Bhaskar retired IAS officer Haryana.Missing Mr. Seshan on his 89th Birth Anniversary. I confess that I was not a great admirer of Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan (15 Dec 1932 – 10 Nov 2019), when he was Cabinet Secretary. But I became an admirer once he became the tenth Chief Election Commissioner of India. I was chosen as Election Observer for the Ahmednagar bye-election, one of the earliest elections under his watch. The code of conduct was rigorously enforced. The young Collector of Ahmednagar, in my presence, told Shri Sharad Pawar, then CM of Maharashtra, on phone, that he cannot make any exception, and his officers would allow only five cars in the CM’s campaign caravan. Back in Delhi I narrated this incident to my immediate boss and added that Mr. Seshan’s successors will not be able to reverse his reforms. My boss was wiser and said that I was underestimating the politician-civil servant nexus. Lo and behold, the Government appointed two more Election Commssioners and kept Mr. Seshan busy fighting for his turf. Slowly and steadily the Commission has gone back to its not so good old ways.