The out of box man

As a boy he used to assemble electronic guitars for himself from spare parts bought from the famous Bhagirath Palace market in Delhi because he could not afford to buy one!

Nor could he afford a tutor to take lessons in guitar. But as a child Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi, more popularly known as S. Y. Quraishi, loved music. So he learnt to play the guitar on his own. “Although he had a friends circle but would not go out much and preferred to spend more time with his books,” recalls Ilyas Quraishi, younger brother of S. Y., adding, “He was the blue eyed boy of the parents because he was obedient and studious. He never smoked. Nor drank.” S.Y. went on to become the Chief Election Commissioner of India, a post coveted by all top bureaucrats for the sweeping powers and authority it brings with it.

However, for S.Y. himself, perhaps his ascendancy to the post is not the most memorable moment in his life. Judging by the socio-cultural background S.Y. comes from, his cracking of the Indian Administrative Service examination in 1971 was a bigger feat — big enough to inspire an editorial in a national daily on the first Muslim IAS officer from Delhi, well, old Delhi to be more precise.

At that time awareness and inclination towards education was generally low among Muslims. Quraishi’s family lived at Matia Mahal in the famous Jama Masjid area of old Delhi. His father, Mohammed Zubair Quraishi, taught English in a school and was also an Islamic religious scholar. “Despite that, we never saw a maulvi sahab in our home to give us lessons in basic Arabic and Qur’an as is common with most Muslim families in the area. Whatever we learnt of religion and scriptures was from our parents,” says Ilyas.

An alumnus of Delhi’s elite St. Stephen’s college, Quraishi has been outstanding in his long career as a civil servant. An officer of the 1971 batch Haryana cadre, Quraishi has worked both at state and central levels. He is known for his scholarly work on innovative approaches to issues faced by the Muslim community.

Before his induction into the Election Commission in 2006, Quraishi held the post of Secretary, in the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs. He has held several key positions including that of special secretary in the Health Ministry, Director General of National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) and Director General, Doordarshan. He has also served as DG of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, the country’s largest rural youth development agency.

To Quraishi goes the credit of founding the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, a place where he was director between 1993 and 1997. He has a number of books, articles and talks to his credit on issues related to democracy, elections and social sector issues and has authored two path-breaking papers: ‘Islam, Muslims and Family Planning in India’ and ‘Islam and AIDS’.

As director of Doordarshan, he ushered significant changes in the marketing strategy and tried to make DD programmes compatible with market demand so that additional revenue could be generated. “We never ever thought of using our own channels as a means to promote another. But now we are seriously looking into the area of brand building and promotions,” he was quoted as saying in August 2002.

Elaborating, he said, “Greater audience means greater revenue. I think we need to catch the viewers first, if we need to increase our revenues.” On Dec 20, 2002, he replied in response to query about DD: “We are changing as a corporation, becoming more market responsive.”
What these steps taken by him suggest that Quraishi has always believed in thinking out of the box and he does not fight shy of adopting innovative methods for addressing governance problems. Which makes him an outstanding performer.

S. Y. Quraishi is also a known name in the field of power sector reforms. As secretary of the Department of Power and Non-Conventional Energy, in Haryana, he successfully negotiated a $600 million World Bank loan for reform and privatisation of power sector in the state. This initiative was evaluated as one of the ten best in the world by the World Bank Quality Assurance Team. He also served as Secretary, Irrigation, in Haryana. As Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Renewable Energy, Quraishi piloted wide ranging reforms.

As CEC, he has overseen fair and impartial elections in many key states including Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. As precedents show, holding fair and impartial elections in certain states of India is an uphill task and few people have the grit to stand up to the challenge. And Quraishi is one of them! His biggest success story - though he has not got as much credit and appreciation as is due - and contribution to democracy in India has been changing the election landscape in the troubled states of Bihar and West Bengal. These two states were busy competing with each other in the use of muscle power and rigging during elections to thwart the democratic process and will of the people.

Quraishi with single minded determination took all the necessary steps like heavily deploying security forces to hand over the democratic right to the people to choose their own governments by making their polls free, fair and devoid of rigging. The result is for everyone to see in Bihar and very recently with the overthrow of the 34-year controversial regime of the CPM in West Bengal. the Election Commissioner has proved his worth, one of the key reasons why we at Governance Watch decided to put him on the cover of our launch issue.

As a scholar who was awarded a Ph.D for his thesis on “Role of Communication and Social Marketing in Development of Women and Children”, he is well aware of the power of the media in influencing public opinion. He has expressed concern over over the misuse of money in the elections and the practice of paid news. He also questioned the political parties’ use of self-owned media companies to promulgate their party manifesto.

During the recently-concluded assembly election in Tamil Nadu, Quraishi expressed his displeasure at the use of private TV channels for election canvassing by certain political parties. The practice clearly put the rest of the parties at a disadvantage.
“In Tamil Nadu all major political parties have their own TV channels. We have to see how a level playing field could be created,” he was quoted as telling the media.

With about two years to go before he demits the office of the CEC, the challenges have not ended for Quraishi. As for now, he has garnered praises for his job and looks ahead to more challenges.

T.N. Seshan

As far as we can recall, it was during the early 1990s that the common people in India first heard about the election commission and a post which went by the name of the chief  election commissioner (CEC). It was when Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan or T. N. Seshan became the CEC. Seshan took charge on Dec 12, 1990. 

As the Chief Election Commissioner of India he introduced pathbreaking electoral reforms that paved the way for making the Election Commission a powerful body. In a way Seshan can be credited with redefining the status and visibility of a CEC in India. His name became synonymous with transparency, efficiency and forward vision during his tenure as the CEC. He came up with the idea of an election-card for every rightful voter in India, something that is regarded as the Indian equivalent of the US Social Security card.

Seshan started his bureaucratic career in the early 1950s and held several key posts at state and central level, including the most coveted post of the Cabinet Secretary in 1989. He got the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1996. In his own words, he has an outstanding achievement of being universally hated by all the political parties. Known for his crisp one liners, he was once quoted as saying: “If equality of hatred is a test of my partiality, I will pass with flying colours.”

As if just to buttress his claims, a couple of months ago union Minister for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh saw red when compared to Seshan. It so happened that Ramesh went to Mumbai in November last year to announce about the environmental clearance given to the Jaitapur nuclear power plant. During his speech Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar said that Ramesh was like Seshan, to which the minister retorted: “I am a very reasonable person and not like T N Seshan.” 

After retirement he founded the Deshbhakt Trust, an NGO forum for like minded citizens concerned with social reforms in India.
In January 2008, he joined, as a permanent faculty, the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

J.M. Lyngdoh

James Michael Lyngdoh held the office of the Chief Election Commissioner of India from June 14, 2001 to February 7, 2004. After T.N. Seshan, he was the second CEC who asserted the authority of his office which inevitably meant clashes with the ruling dispensation on several occasions.

He remained in news regularly while his stint as the CEC.  Of Khasi tribal origin, Lyngdoh hails from the northeastern state of Meghalaya.
Lyngdoh entered the Indian Administrative Service at a young age of 22 and quickly became known for probity and toughness and for favouring the underdog against politicians and the local rich. In 1997, Lyngdoh was named as one of India’s three election commissioners. By 2001 he was the CEC Lyngdoh soon faced crises in two of India’s most troubled states. In Jammu and Kashmir, where the situation was explosive with local secessionists vociferously shouting for separation, state elections fell due in 2002.

Many people doubted that they could be conducted credibly. Lyngdoh thought otherwise. Pushing ahead despite a vicious cross-border  terrorism and boycott, the Election Commission updated and verified the election rolls, introduced voter identity cards, and added a thousand new voting sites. He heightened election security by mobilising the local police and paramilitary forces from outside the state. Then he urged the people to vote fearlessly. A reassuring 44 per cent people did so. Even Lyngdoh’s critics acknowledged that the polling had been fair.

After the Godhra riots, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led union government dissolved the state government and called for elections amid communal violence. Lyngdoh asserted his position and said no. Citing the large number of displaced persons and the pervasive atmosphere of fear in Gujarat, he postponed the elections. Although vilified for doing so, he stood his ground and carefully prepared for the delayed polls. He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service in 2003.