Seshan's bold initiatives led India's game changing electoral reforms

Tough, and a stickler to the rule book, TN Seshan fearlessly took on both inert officials and slack political parties to ensure fair and free elections in the country during his trail-blazing six-year stint between 1990 and 1996 as the chief election commissioner.

Born Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan on December 15, 1932 in Thirunellai, Palakkad district of Kerala, he ruthlessly enforced the model code of conduct much to the chagrin of political parties.

Till he took over, political parties ferrying people to the polling stations were considered quite "normal," and it was during Seshan's stint that it became impossible with the model code being made sacrosanct.

Also, he ensured that bogus voting was averted to a large extent.

Such reforms were unheard of till he took over as the 10th chief election commissioner in 1990.

In his zealous mission to cleanse the electoral system, he earned the wrath of politicians including late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa who had hit out at him for being "arrogant."
The citation had said, "In electing T N Seshan to receive the 1996 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the board of trustees recognises his resolute actions to bring order, fairness, and integrity to elections in India, the world's largest democracy."
"...he enforced spending limits and required contestants to submit full accounts of their expenses for scrutiny by independent government inspectors. He exposed politicians who made illicit use of public resources for electioneering and prohibited election-eve bonanzas for government workers. He banned the sale of liquor and seized unlicensed firearms at election time. He prohibited election propaganda based on religion."
Educated at the Madras Christian College in Chennai, he was courageous and as Congress leader Shashi Tharoor put it he was a "crusty boss who asserted the Election Commission's autonomy and authority as no CEC before him had done. A pillar of our democracy."