Mellow or callow?

Back in 1992, Kumari Selja had just been inducted into the Narasimha Rao government as deputy minister, education and culture. She was all of 30 then, just two years older than Agatha Sangma, the youngest minister in the new UPA government. Selja had come in on the back of a bright political career in the Mahila Congress but no experience in the ways of the government.

"As the stereotype goes, we were expecting a callow politico from Haryana. Instead, to our pleasant surprise, we got a smart, soft-spoken and very intelligent minister who absorbed everything like a sponge. She was asked to sit in during the question-answer session when the minister was away and she conducted herself wonderfully," recalls a retired bureaucrat.

Obviously a lot has changed since then. Being young as well as politically efficacious is no longer a contradiction in terms. Selja herself, now 47, and after two stints as a junior minister, has been absorbed into the cabinet as MOS (independent charge), housing and poverty alleviation. Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada are among the seven who are below 40 in the new council of ministers. Thanks to the buzz around Rahul Gandhi, fresh young faces are getting more attention than they ever did.

"Look at the demographics of the country itself. It is remarkably youth-oriented. And who better than a young politician to understand the problems of the youth? We had to have young faces in this Parliament," says 26-year-old Hamdullah Syeed, the youngest MP in the 15th Lok Sabha.

There was a time when it was believed that a minister's acumen was directly proportional to his age. The more years you spent getting your hands dirty with realpolitik, the better your chances at getting into the government and doing a good job of running it. Not just that, given that India has a large federal system, it takes a long time for a politician to get to a top slot in the government; rarely before they hit 50.
No wonder then that nearly 80 per cent of the young faces in the new government come from political dynasties which have already established themselves at the national level. But even then, far fewer young MPs have got into the government than was expected.
There is a rationale behind this wariness, says political scientist Zoya Hasan.

"We cannot go for youth just for the sake of the youth. These young politicians should stand for some specific policy before they find a place in the council. Primacy has to be given to experience."

Contrary to popular perception, youth and radicalism do not necessarily go together. As political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan points out, some of the most radical ideas that have changed the face of India - Mandal, mandir, economic reforms - have been initiated by men who were well past their 60s. And the young ministers in the last cabinet, including A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran, were not exactly known for efficiency or offbeat thinking.
Unlike the corporate field, policy-making in the government involves a huge sweep of issues. The CEO of a company needs to concentrate on a small area of expertise. It works well to have a technocrat in his 40s running a biotech company but that would not work for the government. A minister of commerce and industry, for instance, oversees a huge sweep of responsibilities. Given the economic downturn and a fraught neighbourhood, a seasoned politician might be what the doctor ordered in many ministries.

Says a senior official who walked the tight rope between a cabinet minister who was a very senior politician and his youthful and impatient MOS at the peak of his career: "As they say, 'If youth knew, if age could'. Both together can make a great combination but they have to recognise each other's strengths. I would tell my MOS, 'Let the minister mobilise support for his policies,' and I would tell the veteran neta, 'Let this young guy do your running around and execute your policies.'"

In an ideal political world, the MOS position would be seen as a learning experience. The MOS watches the senior minister at work, picks up points, stands in for him/her when required. But politics is rarely about the ideal. Getting your way under a grasping minister who is not interested in mentoring you is not easy, and if he/she happens to be someone from an unfriendly ally in a coalition, you could forget about carving a place for yourself in the ministry.

How a young minister shapes up has a lot to do with his background, education, and of course the situation he walks into. "At the end of the day, it is all about being in the right place at the right time," says Rangarajan.