Warhorses rule the roost in Parliament

NEW DELHI: Politics has now become thelast refuge of the gerontocracy. Or so it seems. Statistics indicatethe present Lok Sabha has 73 MPs between 66-85 years of age. And their numbersare rising. Contrast this with the first Lok Sabha where the average age of MPswas 45. Today, there’s a discernible drop in the number of MPs between25-35 years. Congress warhorse, K Karunakaran is 85 and still goingstrong. His Lok Sabha colleague, Congress MP, Atma Ram Maganbhai Patel, fromMehsana in Gujarat, is also 85. And he gives colleagues half his age a run fortheir money at the hustings. The BJP too has its share of old, butnot infirm, men. BJP veteran Nanaji Deshmukh, Rajya Sabha MP, is 86. Lt Col(retd) Maharja Narendra Shah, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Tehri Garhwal, will turn 82next month. Among women parliamentarians, Krishna Bose, Trinamul Congress, takesthe honours. She is the oldest at 73. In fact, the majority of high- profile MPsnow are all over 70 years. Leading the pack is PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 79.Sprightly L K Advani and Jagmohan follow at 75. And by George, Fernandes is 72.So why this trend? CPM veteran Somnath Chatterjee says,‘‘This is disconcerting. Young people today are critical ofpoliticians, but my party keeps telling them that it’s not enough to be anarmchair critic. If they want to change the system, they must joinpolitics.’’ Akali Dal leader Simranjit Singh Mann isalso worried. ‘‘Sometimes when I look at the greyheads inParliament, I feel we have become part of the Rip Van Winkle syndrome. The worldhas altered dramatically and yet, here we have leaders who continue to spout theold Fabian socialistic jargon.’’ For deputy chairman ofthe Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, a House of white-haired, sleeping MPs is causefor concern. ‘‘It is obvious they are no longer concerned with whatis happening inside the House. All the lobbying and deals are taking placeoutside the House.’’ Congress’ Mani Shanker Aiyar says,‘‘Top leaders prefer to hand out tickets to those of their peergroup. ’’ Modern medicine, too, has kept the oldfighting fit. ‘‘Look at Vajpayee. He has already made it clearhe’s willing to lead his party into the next elections. I was recentlyintroduced by Arjun Singh as a promising young man in the Congress when I am62.’’ Congress MP Renuka Choudhary says she entered the RajyaSabha at 29 years. ‘‘Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was also lucky —he entered at 27 years. The only people who can retire us is the public. Butsince they have faith in us, we keep coming back.’’ Some olden era,this.