Is it possible to have another chief elections commissioner who would match the neutrality uprightness of late TN Seshan?

No, not possible. We do not have his breed of people anymore. We mostly have sold-out types of people or people who are ready to get sold out for peanuts. There are a lot of people who keep on standing on the corridor of power with a placard “I am for sale. Upto 90% flat discount”

T N Seshan was the Chief Election Commissioner from 12 December 1990 to 11 December 1996 under the regime of four PMs - Chandra Shekhar, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H. D. Deve Gowda. It was possibly one of the most unstable periods of Indian politics. Imagine in a span of just seven years we had four PMs ruling India. The ecosystem was suitable for Mr. Seshan to become T N Seshan and behave like a T N Seshan. Did you ever hear his name during Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure? I do not remember. Possibly some of my seniors on Quora could be able to throw some light on this. Possibly Kiran Bedi was more famous than Mr. Seshan during Indira and Rajiv Gandhi;s tenure. Because she behaved like a Kiran Bedi right then when Indira Gandhi was Indira Gandhi in full form. T N Seshan became CEC after Rajiv Gandhi lost power.

After Rajiv Gandhi, India was ruled by a coalition government for 26 years. I would like to believe that no PM was strong enough then to get into confrontation mode with Mr. Seshan. Possibly Mr. Seshan was the first CEC to understand the immense power and authority vested in that constitutional body. He stood upright and exercised the power & authority given to the position upholding the true spirit of democracy.

Unfortunately these days, the election commission is subservient to the executive and even to the political party in power. Some spineless incompetent creature cuckle up the ladder to occupy those constitutional positions. It would be atrocious to expect them even to perform in a routine manner. Expecting them to stand up to T N Seshan’s stature would be a far cry. So we have some identity-less people functioning in those positions. They are only identified as Chief Election Commissioner or Election Commissioner. They may be having some name given by their parent. But nobody knows them nor anybody will remember their names when they leave office. They come and go silently, nobody takes notice of them.

However, it would be wrong to blame them alone. Because only those species get selected for those coveted positions. The primary criterion for selection is subservience. And you get plenty of them holding that placards ““I am for sale. Upto 90% flat discount”. You don’t get people like T N Seshan too often. He is a rare collection. So we remember him even though he was CEC, 30 years ago. Do you remember the names of the CECs who came after him? No. My answer would be - who cares, someone was there sitting on the chair. They never had any identity without the chair. Secondly, by mistake someone tries to be Mr. T N Seshan, he will be cut to size immediately. So do not keep any false hope or expectation.