The Hindu Business Line : Hand over torch to young leaders

Some recent happenings have brought into sharp focus the question of involving the younger sections of political class in running the government. Not only the appointment in itself to the Union Council of Ministers of Messrs. Jyotiraditya Scindia (37) and Jitin Prasada (35), but the fact of their being given charge of important portfolios of Communications and Information Technology, in the case of Mr Scindia and Steel, in the case of Mr Prasada, should be taken as realisa tion, although belated, of the need to discard old familiar faces well past their prime and draw on the rich reservoir of the talent, idealism and energy of the budding young leaders in various parties. The flutter created by the mention of the name of Mr Rahul Gandhi as a possible future Prime Minister should be taken, not in the sense of promoting dynastic politics, but as having generated a healthy debate on the merits of entrusting the nation’s top executive job to the generation next, so to speak, by way of speeding up India’s entry into the beckoning brave, new world of tomorrow.

Rajiv Gandhi in his forties, with his call for grasping the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, did invest the Prime Ministership with an inspiring vision and impressive dynamism, and but for being unfortunately tripped by the Bofors episode, could have left his mark as even a greater Prime Minister than his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, and mother Indira Gandhi, over perhaps a longer tenure as well.

Indeed, he made even the short spell of five years given to him memorable, not only for the largest majority the Congress Party had seen in its parliamentary history, but for scintillating new initiatives such as the Act banning political defections and the Constitutional Amendments making elected panchayati raj institutions a mandatory third tier of self-government, and earmarking one-third of the seats for women.

It is of prime importance at this stage of India’s progress towards the centre-stage in the comity of nations, to somehow to prise it out of the rut of staleness and obscurantism of gerontocratic leadership, and breathe into it new life with the ability to think beyond the dot and outside the box, and even think the unthinkable.

Demographic dividend

This is possible only if the torch passes in the immediate future to the young leadership in every walk of life. In fact, young members of political parties should assert themselves by demanding that at least half the number of candidates to representative institutions, and Ministers in the Central and State Cabinets should be reserved for persons between the age of 25-35. Of course, there will be much scare raised about inexperience, but go-getting youthfulness will any day be preferable to being woebegone with pros and cons.

The ‘demographic dividend’ of which there is a lot of talk demands nothing less. India’s population in the 15-24 age group grew from around 175 million in 1995 to 190 million in 2000 and 210 million in 2005, increasing by an average of 3.1 million a year between 1995 and 2000 and 5 million between 2000 and 2005. In 2020, the average Indian will be only 29 years old, compared with 37 in China and the US, 45 in West Europe and 48 in Japan. In 2015, 31 per cent of India’s population will be under 15, 27 per cent will be in the 15-29 bracket and another 27 per cent will be in the 30-49 bracket. It will be anachronistic if, in such a situation, obsolescent elders are seen ruling the roost.

B. S. RAGHAVAN