Age, they say, is just a number. Yet, age matters. With age comes wisdom, a deeper understanding of the intricacies of life. With age also comes a steadily growing weakness to human’s physical and mental faculties. All things considered, age has its advantages and disadvantages, with the latter weighing heavier. That’s why, for all matters concerning governmental work, age is a major factor, a significant exception being politicians. They make rules for themselves and can go on and on. Their performance levels, unlike bureaucrats and others, are a matter of conjecture. Bluff-masters that are one too many in politics create a make-believe world and make the world believe they are agile even at an advanced age. As long as they remain in power, the media – the main means of information to the public – keep hailing them. We, therefore, live in a make-believe world.
The thought arises in the context of a statement by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat the other day that “turning 75 is nature’s signal to pause and give way to others.” His reference was to such sentiments shared by Moropant Pingle, an RSS ideologue; and the occasion an event held in Nagpur to mark the deceased’s memory. It’s natural for many to see a high-voltage political link to this statement. They cited that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be 75 in a matter of two months. Bhagwat himself faces the same prospect – attaining this age in the same month of September; one having been born on the 11th and the other 17th in 1950. The RSS is an organisation noted for its discipline. It will be unthinkable that its chief jumps the gun; more so Bhagwat, a disciplinarian himself. A succession plan might be ready there already. Not so in politics, where the dramatis personae are drunk with power and many of them minting money for themselves to unimaginable levels. The more they carry on, the more they can possess.
Modi might be tempted to step down in September, based on the Magdarshak Mandal rule he had himself enforced in 2014. There however is no hint yet to that effect. A change of guard midway through the present term of the central government might look odd as there’s no clear second-in-command in the form of a deputy prime minister. Modi’s strength is the political stability, coupled with financial stability, that he provided the nation. He erred on several fronts, including the nightmarish currency demonetization decision that was taken without proper preparations, and vis-à-vis the question marks that he raised in the recent engagement with Pakistan. Yet, overall, he still holds an aura, which no other leader in the party can claim to possess. This aura might, or might not, last until 2029, and the hints of which were evident in the 2024 poll itself. This prospect would naturally exercise the minds of the RSS leadership that runs the nation from behind under the NDA dispensation.
