The Hindu Business Line : The Seshan effect

It actually happened during the general elections when Mr Seshan was the CEC. Politicians used to shiver at his name. The bank in reference advanced a certain sum to a minister. The bank's efforts to recover the loan proved futile because of his political clout. Finally, a suit was filed in the court of law. But the suit never came up for hearing even after a decade.

Meanwhile, due to a change in the Government, the borrower lost his ministership and shifted his residence from the official address that was given to the bank.

The bank thus lost track of the borrower. The account was treated as a bad debt and remained in the books of accounts without any chance of recovery.

Then came the announcement of poll dates for the general elections. There was a sudden upsurge in political activity everywhere.

Our borrower who was spending his time in political hibernation suddenly shot in to limelight by defecting to another political party. He was given a ticket to contest the elections. This was widely reported in the press. This news caught my attention and prompted me to make one more attempt to recover the loan.

I sent a letter to the borrower, enclosing the newspaper clipping, informing him that since he was a defaulter to the bank, his contesting the elections was in violation of the code of conduct framed by the Election Commission.

I also informed him that the matter would be brought to the notice of Mr Seshan if the debt was not repaid to the bank. I gave him one week to repay the debt. I kept my fingers crossed. To my pleasant surprise, on the seventh day, the borrower came running to the bank and offered to settle the dues.

He pleaded with me not to report the matter to Mr Seshan lest his candidature be disqualified.

While years of efforts from the bank yielded no results, one letter to report the matter to Mr Seshan did the trick.

(The writer is a senior manager with a Karnataka-based bank.)

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