NEW DELHI, Jan. 8 -- "In all my life, I have not voted so far." Can you imagine that these words were stated reportedly by none other than T. N. Seshan, India's 10th election commissioner with a trail-blazing six-year stint from 1990 to 1996? This straight-laced civil servant and performance-demanding bureaucrat was the 18th Cabinet Secretary of India and Magsaysay Award winner in 1996 for his electoral reforms by bringing "order, fairness and integrity to elections in India, the world's largest democracy." Seshan had reasons for exercising his freedom not to vote, or perhaps he knew that, even with his much-needed electoral reforms, things could have been better.

As a voter since 1967 for 14 out of 17 Lok Sabha elections and several sta...