The greatness of Sukumar Sen, & Super Mario | #95

Who invented the hand sanitizer? ➡️

Mar 12, 2022

Hello

The Election Commission was set up in 1950 with the task to conduct fair and free elections in a country as vast and diverse as India. India was extremely lucky to have Sukumar Sen as its first Election Commissioner - he laid down many of the guiding principles and policies that still ensure fairness of election. A problem solver, who found reasonable, scalable solutions for a problem of this magnitude. A true VC’s dream.

With the long-winding elections just coming to an end in India, this week’s newsletter is dedicated to the man who in many ways, made India the democratic country it is today.

Things we learnt this week 🤓

India was one of the few countries to award universal adult franchise from its very first elections itself. But in 1952, about 28 lakh women had their names removed from the electoral rolls. Sukumar Sen, took the decision to remove them as these women refused to divulge their real names, instead referring to themselves in the third person. Eg: Sehwag ki Ma. What's in a name? Clearly a lot according to Sukumar Sen.
Sukumar Sen comes from an accomplished family. His father was a civil servant. One of his brothers was Ashoke Kumar Sen, who ended up being a Law minister and a long time Parliamentarian. His other brother Amiya Kumar Sen, was an eminent doctor, who was the last man to see Rabindranath Tagore alive.
Sukumar Sen has a unique distinction of not only being India’s first chief Election Commissioner, but also being the first Election Commissioner of Sudan. Using learnings from a largely illiterate population in India, he adopted many things from India to Sudan - using symbols and colours to identify parties, using an army of government servants to go door-to-door to teach people how to exercise their franchise. The elections were considered free and fair and was a model for how elections should be done. Sen-sational.