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Only the good die young

Lest you think this is a condemnation of the old as a breed, allow this minor correction: the Grim Reaper, when he swirls the scythe, perhaps as a challenge, seems to relish getting the younger crop. The old, maybe because they won't be missed as much, are treated with benign neglect; in fact, if death were more equitable in its dealings, this surely would have been a better world...

If only he came knocking when we wished it, and not when he does, so much of life's turmoil could be done away with it.

Given their age, neither Rajiv Gandhi, nor Rajesh Pilot, and more recently P R Kumaramangalam, could fall into the youthful bracket. But by excelling in a field that puts a premium on age, when prime ministers, chief ministers and other such uniformly come from beyond the 70-plus Plimsoll line, these men have left behind a void that becomes more acute as time goes by.

Contrast that with the state of the Union Cabinet, where ministers' schedules are reworked to suit their indisposition. The prime minister's knee trouble is so acute that an entire portion of his American tour is lobotomised. Luckily for him, a crucial minister is currently in the US undergoing treatment and is able to join the prime ministerial entourage. Ditto with another minister... In fact, the state of the nation can be likened to the state of the Union Cabinet: rickety, yes, but functional.

In this scenario, such a man as Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who has announced his retirement from electoral politics to rediff.com, is a rarity. But so high is the premium we place on experience that age alone can provide that no one wants him to go. The party, which is the ultimate authority in such matters, is terrified about its electoral prospects without its main vote-catcher.

I remember the shrill campaign preceding the 1985 elections that returned Rajiv Gandhi with an unprecedented majority. Janata Party leader Chandra Shekhar, the picture of sobriety, had appeared on Doordarshan and appealed to the voters. This is a critical time, he had said, and not a time for on-the-job experimentation; vote experience. It was a no-contest, as a nation thirsting for youth and innovation rooted for Rajiv.

In this case, it was Shekhar who had the last laugh. Youth was not always better, the nation learnt a bitter lesson in statecraft. Neither jeans nor genes make you a natural leader; Indira Gandhi may have had a ringside view of administration, but even she had not begun at the top. Her father, a visionary no doubt, saw the pitfalls ahead and made her go up the rungs. Perhaps she erred in not following the same principle for her son.

When people make a collective mistake, as in 1985, it becomes doubly difficult to do any course correction. From 1989 onwards, experience has returned to the centrestage, even if it means malfunctioning parts of the human anatomy.

Thankfully for the prime minister, the US trip is not even high on hype. Both sides and the Indian public, which normally is treated like mushrooms -- kept in the dark and fed doses of bullshit -- are aware that one, America is in election mode and thus visiting dignitaries, especially from Third World countries aspiring for a global role, are at the bottom of the totem pole. As such nothing substantive may emerge from the visit, barring some breaking of ice and clinking of glasses. And two, any meeting, to be fruitful for both sides, has to be between equals. As things stand, despite the much-touted commonalities, India is hardly a blimp on the American radar, and will remain so for a long time to come.

Thus, the PM's itinerary is long enough to pack in substantial time at the local hospices and to return rejuvenated to take on the fresh rigours of heading a coalition government.

But there's an inherent warning for all political parties here. Which is that their sword arm needs a backup which, in order to be useful, must be younger. The BJP appears to be relatively lucky here, in that its second rung is quite visible. Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley -- one almost included Rangarajan Kumaramangalam in this list. As they say, habits die hard, even though dreams die first.

Saisuresh Sivaswamy