Former Chief Election Commissioner, Navin Chawla, who passed away on Saturday, was someone I knew from the time I was a student leader, and he the secretary to the then Lt. Governor, Krishan Chand. I was in my BA final and president of my college Students Union when I had gone to formally invite Mr Krishan Chand to inaugurate the Union. Navin Chawla was there and his no nonsense approach caught my attention as he immediately facilitated the meeting.
From that day onwards in October, 1975, he remained in touch somehow, and it was during his stint as the head of the Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking (DESU) that we actually became close. I was covering local affairs and he was someone who always was eager to get some honest feedback on the situation which existed on the ground. Even before I had first met him, he was someone who was well known; he had presided over the court marriage of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay Gandhi with Maneka Anand. His photographs along with that of the newly-wed couple were all over the town and word had spread that he was extremely close to the first family. It needs to be mentioned here, that Navin Chawla’s aunt, a certain Ms Sindhwani was a key aide of both Mr Jawahar Lal Nehru and subsequently Indira Gandhi.
Although he rarely spoke about his family’s connections, he did mention this when he was to move to 9, Moti Lal Nehru Marg as the Chief Election Commissioner. He had stated that he used to come to these premises even as a young boy. Incidentally, this address, considered by many experts as the best and most Vaastu specific house has produced three Prime Ministers. Mr Nehru stayed there when it was 9, York Place, Inder Gujaral as a Union Minister and PV Narasimha Rao also as a Minister, just before he was elected as the Prime Minister in June, 1991.
Navin Chawla was conscious of this and there would be a lot of banter around this subject, which he would dismiss by waving his hands. He had excelled in all the assignments that he was asked to perform as a senior government functionary and bureaucrat. There were those in the civil services, who had a diametrically opposing ideological DNA as his, but no one ever disputed the fact that he never allowed his personal beliefs, to come in the way of performing his job. He was really a true professional, perhaps amongst the best in the country.
Attempts were made by some of his adversaries in the service to ensure that he did not get empaneled for the Secretaryship but this happened during the time when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. Navin Chawla’s desire was that he should be the Union Home Secretary, and there is no doubt that he would have made an excellent HS, had he been picked up. There were multiple contenders for the post and the one, who was backed by a powerful lobby in the government prior to the UPA coming to power, was the front runner.
Navin Chawla realized that he would not make it, and in a meeting over coffee at the Gymkhana Club, he told me that nether that gentleman nor he would be the HS, and a decision had been taken to appoint Vinod Duggal, another exceptional officer of the AGMUT cadre to the position. Duggal made a very good HS and Navin Chawla who briefly served as the Information and Broadcasting Secretary later joined the Election Commission. His early days in the Commission were not easy either and he had many run ins with N. Gopalaswamy, the CEC, on purely professional issues though the CEC asked the government to remove him.
Navin Chawla nevertheless, took over as the CEC subsequently and conducted the 2009 Parliamentary polls with both precision and fair-play, which was even acknowledged by many in the BJP, who often accused him of being a congress stooge, due to his proximity with the Gandhis on a personal front. This relationship never came in the way of his going about his job. There are a few anecdotes which sum up his personality. Yes, he was educated at some of the best institutions—Lawrence School, Sanawar, St. Stephens’ College, University of London and the London School of Economics. He had gone to Sanawar on a scholarship which was courtesy Mr Nehru. But he never looked back and accomplished everything that was academically possible for him at that time.
There is this story about the time when he was the DESU Chief. Residents of a South Delhi Colony, piled up in cars and reached his residence to lodge their protest since there had been no power in their area for hours together. Navin was away trying to get things sorted out at the DESU headquarters but his wife, Rupika, met the protestors and sat with them on the culvert near their house and shared their anguish. She offered them Nimbu Pani and also informed them that there had been no electricity in their own house, something which astonished the demonstrators, who after a while left, feeling satisfied that this was something which even the DESU boss had to suffer.
Navin Chawla was extremely close to Mother Teresa and even wrote her approved biography. He was involved in philanthropy and was associated with a few NGOs though he found time to travel extensively. He would often call me and discuss the current going-ons and was very protective of the Election Commission and dismissed all talk of manipulation of EVMs as a figment of imagination. No amount of logic on this subject would ever work. In the New Year, he had called me and invited me for lunch after the doctors had approved his going to India International Centre on a wheel chair, since he had difficulty in walking.
On the appointed day, he postponed the meeting. About a fortnight ago, he informed me that he was getting some brain surgery done at the Apollo hospital which would enable him to walk. I requested him to reconsider the decision but his mind had been made up.
However, he said that he would be back home on January 24th to celebrate the 18th birthday of his granddaughter, which was a momentous occasion. I called him on that day and found his phone to be switched off. On Saturday morning, to my utter shock, I received the news of his passing away following a cardiac arrest. You shall be missed Sir. Gup Shup would never be the same without you giving your perspective. Rest in peace.