Saffron goes hip as GenNext takes over

The Bharatiya Janata Party is shedding old skin by the day and looking very ruddy for it too. And from under that skin of the irate, old Sanghi in half-pants is emerging a very slick being indeed. Saffron is getting younger, and a 79-year-old is leading the brat pack from the front.
The death of veteran Kushbhau Thakre was a soft reminder. That an age has passed.Just a few weeks ago, the point was driven home more firmly when the Pramod Mahajan-Arun Jaitley brand of urbane, tech-savvy politicking won the day for the BJP in the Assembly elections. The only one they lost, Delhi, just underscored how the old guard was best on its way out. So oldie Madanlal Khurana has been put on the retirement rolls - as governor of Rajasthan.
The party''s plan for the Lok Sabha election is all about energy and drive too. The younger lot will do all the legwork and attempt to do in the entire country what the silent armies of Mahajan and Jaitley did in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh this year.
The entire exercise, of course, will be fitted around the persona of one man who cannot be chronologically described as young. But if Atal Bihari Vajpayee''s spur of the moment midnight dash from Jaipur to Delhi - by road if you please - is any indication, the poet Prime Minister does not lack in the young genes. This is the country''s most protected man driving through a thick December fog and three states over six hours, testing man, machine, security and, well, his own knees. Old?
Just look at what the party is taking into 2004. Save Vajpayee and Advani, the rest of those who matter are decidedly young, beginning with the party patriarch, Venkaiah Naidu at 54. He is followed by a stream of vice-presidents, elderly and unknown. The general secretaries are the ones who have a face - unwrinkled. Led by Mahajan, also 54. Sushma Swaraj, one of the most popular electioneers is younger still at 51.
A breather here. These are not young men and women as we know it. Most likely young grandparents. But in Indian politics, you haven''t quite cut your teeth till you begin losing some. So when the Rajiv Pratap Rudys and Shahnawaz Hussains, at 41 and 35, are central ministers with important portfolios, you could call it cradle-snatching.
In the states, Uma Bharati and Vasundhara Raje, both in their 40s join 53-year-old Narendra Modi as young BJP chief ministers. But don''t get misled by the laptops and data analysis. They are not ditching the dhoti either.
GenNext in the BJP is often more rigid in its ideology than the older lot. Though they may not wear their Hindutva on their sleeve anymore - with recent elections bringing home the good news that other issues work for them just as well - many hold on to their RSS roots with greater fervour than does Vajpayee. In fact, it''s not just the BJP that''s getting younger. Siblings like the VHP and Bajrang Dal are too - check out Pravin Togadia and Vinay Katiyar.
In the new scheme of things, the Jaswant Singhs and the Murli Manohar Joshis shall do well to play the genteel old folk brought out on call. A new order then for the New Year and the BJP bandwagon is ready to roll. Did the Congress invent the young politician?