Therefore, within a day after his taking over as CEC T.N.Seshan in his press briefing had said “ And a lot more needs to be done in almost every sphere of the electoral process, including the electoral rolls, polling stations, code of conduct and the role of civil servants and the polling personnel to make the elections foolproof.”
Cleaning the Rot Within
However, when T.N.Seshan visited the ECI office for the first time after taking over as CEC, the realization dawned on him that he had to start the election transformation process first from within, because of ‘the easy-going atmosphere, the stinking toilets, and the broken furniture told him that a lot needed to be done first at the ECI itself! ECI had got inflicted by the overall work atmosphere prevailing in the country at that time’.
To spruce up the work environment and the cleanliness the housekeeping was assigned proper duties; old unwanted furniture were disposed of and new necessary furniture were procured. Arrival on time, attending to assigned duties, maintaining proper work atmosphere were strictly enforced.
He was surprised to note that there was huge ‘overtime’ bill. He records “I was more than certain that the amount of work done in the ECI did not require so much time that the staff need to do overtime. The overtime bill of the commission dropped drastically from Rs.7 lakh to less than Rs.1 lakh per month after I took over. Similarly, the surprise checks helped in improving the general discipline. The housekeeping helped in sprucing up the work environment. ...A major bank had a branch in the premises of the commission and it had accounts of all kinds of people not connected with the commission. The fact that many people not connected with the commission were visiting the body’s premises was not acceptable, as it undermined the office’s discipline. Soon, in the place of that bank, another major bank set up a branch to serve commission and to its employees exclusively,”
The ECI uses the lent services of the selected local government employees for a short period to carry out the gigantic task of conducting free and fair election. Till T.N.Seshan took over as the CEC such borrowed staff hardly knew their full responsibilities or were hand in glove with their local bosses, both political and others, or some did not hesitate even to refuse to accept these electoral duties. In nutshell the commission was hamstrung in performing its duties effectively.
T.N.Seshan had to use all his experience of a successful bureaucrat in converting such recalcitrant group of government employees into a battle ready ECI army! His autobiography is replete with examples of how he tamed the unruly officials and trained them to be an effective election army. Within a short time ECI started to make impact on the electoral scenario of the country under his leadership as CEC. And politicians and political parties started to feel the unprecedented heat. That set in motion campaign against T.N.Sheshan the CEC!
The Looming Threat of Banana Republic
In the first phase of Parliamentary elections of 1991 itself T.N.Seshan got the taste of how the country was facing the threat of a Banana Republic. There were reports of booth capturing, intimidation and total disregard for the rule of law in the conduct of elections. From Andhra Pradesh 28 such cases were reported, 58 from Bihar, 26 from Haryana, 48 from Uttar Pradesh and nine from Bengal. “ These were a cause for concern since these incidents were more systematic than sporadic. There was an organized effort to defeat the free will of the people......In Rupali sector in Haryana, about 200 men on horseback were reported to have gone on a spree of capturing booths, intimidating the supporters of rival parties and even officials of the police and the administration. Bombs were exploded at places to scare off genuine voters. At one place, the CRPF used lathis to disperse a group of militant youth supporter. But the youth were determined to capture the booths. We could not proactively stop the malpractice....” The corrupt politicians were having a free run making a mockery of the country’s democratic structure
T.N.Seshan started countermanding the elections for such parliamentary constituencies not only in Rupali, but also in Purnea, Patna, Etawa, Bulandshahar, and Meerut. Such strict actions from ECI were unheard of earlier!.
‘Save EC from Sheshan’ Cry
The CEC also enjoys a juridical position to pass judgment on certain disputes relating to election matters. Soon after taking charge as the CEC, T.N.Sheshan had to solve several election party symbol disputes.
Arjun Singh had appealed to ECI to deregister the Bharatiya Janatha Party [BJP] withdraw the allotted Lotus symbol to it on the ground that after its Rama Janmabhumi rath yatra ‘the party ceased to be secular in nature’. At the same time the BJP’s Ved Prakash Goel had petitioned that the Congress (I) should not be registered as a political party, ‘since it had given assurances to voters in Mizoram that the state would be made a Christian state.’ Sharad Joshi’s Shetkari Sanghatana had sought de-recognition of Shiv Sena, alleging that it was inciting communal passions.Then there was the case of Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’ [AIDMK] Two Leaves and Janatha Party and Lok Dal and Janatha Dal’s Ploughman within Wheel (chakra haldhar) tussle.
Therefore, when T.N.Seshan upheld the right of Arjun Singh in seeking de-recognition of BJP, but not accepting the application of Ved Prakash Goel for not registering the Congress (I) on the technical ground the same did not go well with the BJP which cried ‘Save EC from Seshan, .’ But that was only a beginning.
Reforms & Repercussions
T.N.Seshan was very clear that “The responsibility of CEC is not only to run the electoral process efficiently but also to identify and implement ways and means by which the electoral process would improve.” Since the state governments were used to bulldoze their agendas during the elections, every step T.N.Sheshan took lead to confrontations and cases in various courts challenging the authority of the ECI. He realized that “The executive was trying to bully the ECI into a subservient position in relation to elections.” T.N.Sheshan recollects “ I had been cautioning the government with two alternatives open to me: that I would stop all election processes; and two, that I would take the matter to court with suitable jurisdiction to obtain a decision on the matter.”
Soon the Tamil Nadu election provided T.N.Seshan with the opportunity to stike and strike he did. Expressing his inability to carry out his constitutional duties as CEC due to lack of cooperation from the executive he declared that he is compelled to postpone the elections. Since such action was unexpected from the ECI, all the hell broke loose. The press went berserk and several petitions were filed against the CEC order in Kolkota, Chennai and Mumbai high courts which issued interim orders against the CEC. ECI moved the Supreme Court to transfer to itself these cases. And the Supreme Court yielded to this request. It also stayed all proceedings in the High Courts.
During this very time, as if providential, the Supreme Court in its judgment on 19th August 1993, relating to the state of J&K, ruled that the ‘superintendence, direction and control’ of all elections were not ‘unbridled’. It said, ‘Power under article 324 is not altogether unreviewable.’ Looking back T.N.Seshan felt that ‘his electoral reforms, 2-19 August 1993 should be considered red-letter days in the history of the commission. It was important because it clarified that the constitutional scheme gave control to the ECI. Otherwise, conducting free and fair elections would not have been possible.
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