50% youth quota proposal fuels 'age vs experience' debate at chintan shivir

An animated debate weighing 'age against performance', 'youthful energy against skilful experience' and 'exuberance against staying-power' is learnt to have raged in the closed-door discussions of members of Congress Chintan Shivir Panel on organisational reforms on the draft proposal for a 50% quota for below-50 age group in all party panels.

The proposal means that many senior Congress leaders will have to vacate some organisational space. This even as the Congress change-seekers' original demand for revival of the Congress Parliamentary Board has now passed through the committee for the final clearance for Congress Working Committee (CWC).

In the in-camera debate--which was still on at the time of going to the press--efforts are on to find a consensus on the final proposal to the CWC, failing which the issue may be left to the Congress president or the CWC to give final shape in Sunday's Udaipur Declaration.


People privy to the debate said while there was broad agreement about the need to encourage youth content with the leadership slots, delegates were clearly divided on the way to go about it, and intended to push a "youth quota" against "leadership merit".

Some delegates argued that instead of a 50% quota for the youth, let the in-house quota be capped at 50% by including all eligible categories-youth, SC-ST, OBC and minorities.

According to sources, many members--especially the 'Team Rahul' representatives who are seen as brain behind the 'make-youth -replace-elders' concept--pushed for it, saying that youngsters should be increasingly brought into organisational leadership roles and that those seniors who are too old can still be around but in "advisory panels".

However, several others are learnt to have said that in politics it is not age that matters but whether one is "active", "performing", "politically skilful" and brings the "benefit of experience". They also referred to some failed recent "youth experiments" on organisational and electoral fronts and pointed out how the Youth Congress experiment to "xhold internal elections: in place of "nominations through consensus" only led to bickering and use of money power. On the pro-youth side's proposal for "advisory panels for elders", these leader reminded them that when PM Modi created "margarshan mandal", the AICC had scoffed at it saying the Congress respected both its elders and youngsters.