Fresh blood infusion not far away

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dropped hints of effecting a ministerial reshuffle, arguing that he wanted to reduce the average age of his Cabinet.

In an interaction with editors in the capital, Mr Singh dismissed talks of his retirement while maintaining, “I would like to reduce the average age of my Cabinet.”

Mr Singh’s, however, has a tough task at hand. His 78-member Council of Ministers relies heavily on the experience of the old guard. External affairs minister S M Krishna is the oldest at 78 and the prime minister would be same age later this month.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, considered UPA’s chief troubleshooter, is 75, and his senior Cabinet colleague A K Antony 70. In Mr Singh’s existing Council of Ministers, there is almost a 50-year age gap between the oldest (Mr Krishna) and the youngest member (minister of state Agatha Sangma). The average age of the 78-member council is 57.

In India, senior leaders become a part of the Cabinet not only because of the number of years spent by them in politics, but also due to religious or caste considerations.

In UPA-II, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister eased out a number of old hands like Mr H R Bharadwaj, Mr Arjun Singh and Mr Sis Ram Ola, but could not bring about a generational shift.

The youth brigade comprising Congress MPs like Jitin Prasada, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, R P N Singh, Prateek Patil and Arun Yadav have still not been able to make the Cabinet cut, and are just junior ministers.

In the 15th LS, there are 82 MPs in the 25-40 age group, with Congress alone accounting for 27. Despite this, Ms Gandhi and Mr Singh did not dip into the talent pool and accommodated only seven of them in the Council of Ministers.

The main reason behind this anomaly appears to be experience. Youth leaders feel that in India, it takes much longer to climb the hierarchy in politics.