Jottings - Slice of life - 341 ( T.N Seshan ( 1932 - 2019) - The man who epitomized and demonstrated the spirit and power of a public office in a democracy)
The Millennials of India may not know T. N. Seshan. It is possible that many were born just after the cataclysmic changes this daring civil servant brought to the Indian electoral system, the undaunted courage he displayed in encountering and altering the perception of what an Election really means in a democracy, and the seminal role he played in exposing the deeply entrenched arrogance and audacity of unrestrained political power. If the younger generation experienced a much more organized, sane and law-abiding election in 2019, it is so because this strict brahmin took it upon himself to reform and revise the way elections were run in India. Between the years of 1990 - 1996, T. N. Seshan was the rockstar of the Indian bureaucracy. As Election Commissioner, his name was splashed on the front pages of mainstream new papers, and almost every day Seshan's official actions or deliberate straight no-nonsense talk would provoke an angered politician to denounce him on the pulpit, o