*No one escapes T. N.
Politicians are bad, bureaucrats are spineless and partial, history
taught in schools is rubbish, businessmen
fuel corruption in politics, public sector is tragic, journalists are
the worst of the lot, "sold for a bottle of whisky;" and the
judiciary, "I'm not allowed to speak."
Thus spoke the Chief Election Commissioner in a thundering two – hour
sermon to the students of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT)
at
Ghaziabad on Wednesday. Mr. Seshan was invited by the students to
speak on he role of business houses in elections.
Mr. Seshan reiterated his views on his erstwhile colleagues of the
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) but singled out those from UP and
Bihar.
"They have no moral fibre; from the Chief Secretary down to the
Patwari in the village, no one is impartial," he said."Their backbone
is comprehensively broken; and nowhere is it as comprehensively broken
as in UP and Bihar."
The former civil servant went on to conclude that brains were not
required to enter the privileged service. He then recalled that he
scored 190 marks out of 200 in history, more than his score in
physics, to qualify for the
IAS. Mr. Seshan took pains to elaborate his bio - data after the hosts
declared that the man needed no introduction. He has two birthdays:
May 15 and
December 15, one of them being the "official birthday". He wrote his
school - leaving exam and the intermediate exam twice (the first time
the papers had leaked in 1947).
Mr. Seshan recalled his stint at the Planning Commission. The
government had earlier found him "unsuitable" for the post of Cabinet
Secretary, so he went to the Planning Commission — as OSD, which meant
"Officer in Search of
Duty". He felt that "In Mr. Hegde's 11, I was the 12th man." Once in
the Planning Commission, he returned his office clock as nothing began
on time;a week later, he returned his office calendar as no meeting
was held on
schedule.
After the self - introduction, the ex-Chief Election Commissioner
revealed the historian within him, and urged the aspiring managers to
be proud for being
an Indian. He narrated the wonders of the ancient Indian civilisation.
"India was a great country long before others stopped living in caves.
You belong to easily the most unsurpassable culture ... but what
passes as history in text books is rubbish." The medieval history of
India didn't have a profound impact on him. "After 650 AD, Indian
history reads like Santa Barbara."
The contemporary Indian society is a sad story for Mr. Seshan. "What
is not corrupt in this country? India's central vice is corruption;
the centrality of corruption is election corruption; and the
centrality of election
corruption is the business houses."
He said that a lady had told him that she spent Rs. 55 lakh for an
election in Delhi for a constituency of 50,000 voters. "But she was
defeated, she came and told me the winner had spent even more."
Another tragedy for the nation, Mr. Seshan declared, was the public
sector. "Indian public sector was the greatest management calamity to
hit any country ever. "The only bigger calamity Mr. Seshan could think
of was the
Indian Press. "The journalists are sold for a bottle of whisky." When
a student said that it was the same press which had told the world
about his greatness, Mr. Seshan said, "If my chastity is being
proclaimed by
prostitutes, I don't want such chastity."
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