Aditi Phadnis: A quieter Seshan

BACKSTAGE

The discussion at the teashop in Chhapra was heated and intense. A band of young men was explaining how this Assembly election had robbed them of a major source of income. "We used to make the voting arrangements (bandobast) for political parties" said one member of the group. "But this time, kamaai bahut kam rahi (earnings were negligible). This was a gang of booth-capturers. Various strategems used to be employed to rig elections in Bihar. This time, however, everyone is unanimous that there has been no bogus voting at all. And the credit is entirely due to Election Commission advisor K J Rao.

Rao has no time for anyone. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, he has been flitting from district to district in Bihar, a retired officer of the Election Commission of India, re-employed solely because he's afraid of no one.

Consider election data about violence in Bihar and how it has affected free and fair elections. Between 1977 and 2005, 533 people in Bihar have died in election violence. In 1990, 86 people died during the Assembly election. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, 15 lives were lost and in the last round of the Assembly elections in February this year, 22 died.

In the first two phases of elections this time around, only two people have died, of them one who was an unfortunate victim of mistaken identity. If you don't count the deaths caused in Jehanabad on account of the jail break, the number of people who have died during this election is unlikely to cross two figures (facts are still being collated).

These are just figures, but consider what this represents. People don't come out to vote because they are afraid there will be violence. This is the most basic form of denial of democratic rights. Rao "" who has supervised many elections "" has zeroed in on this fact. Many have complained that elections in Bihar were stretched out needlessly. He, and Election Commission officials, point out that no price is too high for a fair election.

Rao is a gentle, peaceable man. In hierarchy-conscious babudom, he's not even an IAS officer. But Bihar government officials concede that he's sent shivers down the spines of the administration. Every action of the district-level bureaucracy "" the externment of Prabhunath Yadav, Rabri Devi, Subhash and Sadhu Yadav from Gopalganj, for the duration of the election "" has been backed up by the Election Commission. This has provided the administration with the impetus to act.

You may not have liked his manner or his methods. But it cannot be denied that former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan gave the Election Commission new weight. Whether it was the Chief Election Commissioner's rightful place in the Warrant of Precedence or his right to take away jobs of ministers (then Commerce Minister Pranab Mukherjee was one of his victims) because they did not live where they had been elected from, Seshan put the fear of God and the EC in the powerful. But Seshan left behind him, a job only partially completed. Because of his supervision, K J Rao has now completed the task.