Aditi Phadnis: After Gujarat, it's elections on his agenda

BACKSTAGE

The top bureaucracy in the home ministry knew long before the announcement that the government had decided to elevate the sitting Election Commissioner T S Krishna Moorthy, to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and appoint a third man to fill the vacancy caused by his elevation.

The only question was who this individual would be. A proposal was floated to appoint someone else as CEC, but the government got cold feet and decided to go along with the home ministry.

In pressing N Gopalaswami's name for the post of election commissioner, the government forwarded the argument that in accordance with former CEC M S Gill's recommendation, the Election Commissioners should represent all the four regions of India. As a Tamilian who has worked in Gujarat, Gopalaswami fit the bill adequately.

Gopalaswami was born in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, but studied in Delhi in St Stephen's College and Delhi University. He is a post-graduate in chemistry and joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1966, electing to join the Gujarat cadre.

In Delhi he has served as secretary (culture), advisor (education) in the Planning Commission and joint secretary in the Ministry of Electronics.

In Gujarat, Gopalaswami variously served as the municipal commissioner of Surat; member of the Gujarat State Electricity Board; secretary of the revenue department; and secretary, science and technology and technical education, besides functioning as managing director of the Gujarat Communications and Electronics Limited.

From September 1998 to July 2001, he was secretary-general of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

He then went on to become culture secretary, a position he held until he took over as home secretary. Hand-picked for the job by Home Minister L K Advani, Gopalaswami was in many ways, the ideal foil for Advani, who is also a Member of Parliament from Gujarat.

As home secretary, Gopalaswami has done his bit for Gujarat. After the Godhra carnage, both the deputy prime minister and he conducted their own little enquiries and found that there were structural causes that caused the riots.

The police force was badly trained and unable to deal with pressure. The home ministry helped the state devise an elaborate plan for the modernisation of the Gujarat police so that not only would incidents like Godhra never recur but also would be anticipated and steps taken ahead of time. Conscious that Gujarat was a border state, Advani pressed for this seriously.

Because he was so low-profile, the government thought it could trust Gopalaswami with another task "" containing the aftershock of the revelation reportedly made by Chief Vigilance Commissioner P Sankar, that public sector undertakings were being made to foot the bills of Union ministers.

Although Sankar says he never named any minister, the controversy did leave a bad taste in the mouth and when Sankar insisted that the government do something about it or send him home, it was his good friend Gopalaswami who was sent to mollify him.

Who will be the real Election Commissioner of India? The new CEC, Krishna Moorthy, will retire in 2005 and his successor, B B Tandon, in 2006, both having turned 65.

Krishna Moorthy's term as CEC will be the second-shortest after that of the fourth Election Commissioner, Nagendra Singh, who occupied the post for only five months "" from October 1, 1972, to February 6, 1973.

But not so Gopalaswami. He would have retired from government in 2004 as home secretary.

But now, not only will he serve till 65 but nearly complete the six-year term election commissioners have (six years or 65, whichever is earlier), retiring in April 2009. Of this, he will serve three years as the CEC. He will, therefore, supervise many elections!