TN Seshan Chief Election Commissioner of India

 

• The man who pulled a biscuit from Rajiv Gandhi's mouth, saying that the Prime Minister should not eat anything that has not been tested before.
• He was IAS topper of 1955 batch, was the Chief Election Commissioner of India from the year 1990 to 1996. Though he was labeled as a Congressman, but later the Congress itself used to be troubled by his decisions.

TN Seshan often joked that I eat politicians in breakfast. In India, hardly any bureaucrat has earned more names than TN Seshan in the last three decades. In the nineties, there was a joke in India that Indian politicians are afraid of only two things - one is God, the other is TN Seshan.

He was also the highest rank cabinet secretary of the Indian bureaucracy with a clean image. After dissolving the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh at one time, the then Minister Arjun Singh said that elections in these states will be held after a year. Seshan immediately issued a press release reminding that the Election Commission fixes the date of the election, not the minister.

• There is also a very interesting story of TN Seshan becoming the Chief Election Commissioner of the country.

At around 1 o'clock On a cold December 1990 night, Union Commerce Minister Subramanian Swamy's white ambassador car stopped at a government house on Pandara Road, New Delhi. This house belonged to the then Planning Commission member TN Seshan. He had arrived there as the messenger of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and on arrival he gave his message, "Would you like to be the next Chief Election Commissioner of India?"

After Swami left, Sheshan got a call from Rajiv Gandhi and said he wanted to meet him immediately. When he arrived , Rajiv Gandhi was waiting for him with a little eagerness in his drawing room. "

After a while, Rajiv Gandhi gave his consent to Seshan to accept the post of Chief Election Commissioner. But he was not very happy with it. When he came to leave Seshan to the door, he teased him that This bearded man will curse the day he decided to make you the Chief Election Commissioner. "By bearded man, Rajiv Gandhi meant Prime Minister Chandrasekhar.

Once on August 15, Rajiv Gandhi was about to run from Vijay Chowk to India Gate with a lot of people. He was wearing a track suit. TN Seshan at a short distance, all in a closed-neck suit and trousers. Rajiv joked by looking at them, 'How in suitbut are you standing there? Come, run with us too. Your fatness will be reduced slightly.' Seshan replied with a sarcasm, "Some people have to stand upright so that the Prime Minister of the country can run".

After a while, that happened, which Rajiv Gandhi was not expecting at all. He must have run for a few minutes now, that the security guards surrounded him and brought him to a place where a car was parked and whose engine was already on. "

In a minute, they took him to his house. Seshan was instructed that there should be no messing with the security of the Prime Minister. "

• Once Sheikh Abdullah was placed under house arrest in Tamil Nadu in the sixties when Seshan was the collector of Madurai.

It is a matter of those days when Nehru put Sheikh under house arrest in a hotel 'Laughing Waters' on the banks of the famous Kodai lake in Tamil Nadu in the sixties.

Seshan was the collector of Madurai district at that time. He was given the responsibility to read every letter sent out by Sheikh. Sheikh Abdullah did not like this thing.

The next day when Seshan went to meet Sheikh, the letter was ready. The address on the envelope was written," Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, President of India. " It had no effect on Seshan. Sheikh looked at Seshan in a winning posture and said, "Do you still want to open it?"

"Seshan replied," I will open it in front of you. The address has no meaning for me. " One day, Sheikh announced that he would go on a fast unto death in protest of the bad behavior being done to him.

"Seshan said, 'Sir, it is my duty to take care of your every need. I will ensure that no one comes even before you with a glass of water.'"

TN Seshan was appointed to the post of Chief Election Commissioner by Chandrasekhar's government.

The first example of his independent tendency was found when he postponed the Lok Sabha elections after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi without asking the then government.

Why should TN Seshan be remembered, NOW?

Not because he was ECI but also because when both BJP and Congress influenced and forced him to fight Presidential Election in 1997 on their Symbol. In spite all these he said “I had been on a constitutional post, will not join any party” and fought 1997 Elections independently.