Read this if you think the age of the leaders can seriously affect the issues they focus on and how they connect with voters. One may say politics is essentially a cognitive activity and requires enormous skill and experience.
Yes, this question acquires importance when the official age for retirement from office, in most countries on the globe, happens to be between 60 to 65 years. At the same time, there is no such age bar to run for the coveted posts of country head or for becoming member of Legislatures.
The age at which many countries have been electing their leaders reveals that ‘age’ is just a number as far as governing the country is concerned. For everything else, it matters.
Daniel Stockemer, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, specializes in political behaviour and political representation. He feels the composition of our societies doesn’t reflect the composition of the politicians.
Look at Joe Biden (81 years old) who dropped out of American Presidential elections on July 21, 2024. Primary Reason? Fellow Democrats calculated his fortune to be bleak against Donald Trump (78 years old). For an extended duration Biden remained in the race for America’s presidentship. But his age finally took its toll as he provided enough symptoms of unsteady performance during the on-going electoral campaign.
This has presented an unprecedented situation before Democratic Party in the United States where Presidential elections are due in just four months. The 2024 United States presidential election is set to be held on November 5, 2024.
Examples Galore in Asia
Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad broke the Guinness World record by becoming the oldest serving prime minister at 92 years of age. Mahathir, a politician, author, and doctor, served as the prime minister of Malaysia more than once, He held office from 1981 to 2003 and later from 2018 to February 2020 for a cumulative total of 24 years, making him the country’s longest-serving prime minister. Mahathir, the son of a schoolmaster, oversaw the country’s transition to an industrialized nation. He resigned in 2020 only when age started prevailing on him. Mahathir, 99, is still alive and recuperating in hospital.
Xi Jinping (now 71 years old), the paramount leader of China, who secured his third five-year term as president in 2023, seems to be quite fit to govern. Let’s not forget the so powerful Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping who assumed power in China at the age of 72 and continued till he was 93 years old, when he died.
Deng, famous as ‘Architect of Modern China’ was 87 years old when he took southern tour in 1992 aiming for economic reforms, after stagnation in the wake of Tiananmen protest and consequent crackdown of 1989.
India: Where Age is a Constraint on Case-To-Case Basis
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 73 years old.
- PV Narasimha Rao (now late) became the ninth prime minister of India in 1991 at the age of 70.
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee became prime minister of India in 1999 for the third time at the age of 75 and he completed the full five-year term.
These are certain prominent examples to establish the fact that age continues to be an advantage for political leadership, whereas for all other offices of the State, age has its own limitations.
In Politics, the policies of the leader matters most than their age. It is the sharpness of the leader’s mind that influences the voters than their age. It is the mental health of the leader that matters more than their age. It is competency and background of a candidate that matter more than age. Indeed, age is just a number for governing in the capacity of political leader; but determining qualification for everything else in the country.
Know about the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge
Born in 1942, Kharge was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress in 2022. In his home state of Karnataka, he has won 11 of the dozen elections he contested during his long career in the Congress party. Kharge also served as the leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha during 2014-2019.
Does India’s Ruling BJP Give Preference to Younger Faces
In the ruling BJP, there are as many as 20 leaders who are between the ages of 70-75, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is 73 and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (72). Furthermore, 75-year-old actor-dancer Hema Malini, the MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, is among the leaders who have edged past the BJP’s unofficial age limit of 75 for contesting polls.
Youth is the Gift of Nature, but Age is a Work of Art
- Former Haryana chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda, 76, was asked a question at a function if he would be contesting the upcoming assembly elections. To this, he smiled and said that the question is good but “I will not answer it”.
- Similarly, we have instances of Sharad Pawar (83) in Maharashtra and Naveen Patnaik (77) in Odisha about which one can say – gerontocrats rarely quit, except when shifting political dynamics pull the rug from under their feet.
- M Karunanidhi remained chief minister of Tamil Nadu until he was 87, and DMK president until his death in 2018.
- Mulayam Singh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh died with his boots on, at 82.
- Jyoti Basu of West Bengal served in the CPM politburo well into his 90s.
- LK Advani was 91 when the BJP finally retired him.
- Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, 91, continued to grace the Rajya Sabha until recently.
- Another ex-premier HD Deve Gowda, 91, campaigned vigorously in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections.
The Washington Post newspaper recently wrote a piece, saying that world leaders are often older than the people they govern. Yes, it should not be a surprise. “In democracies, age requirements to run, costly campaigns and incentives to gain experience and clout in political spheres mean it can take a long time for candidates to reach the top job,” it said, adding, “Dictators can stay in power for long periods.”
Ironically, Europe’s leaders are younger lot. But this is because of the reason that established parties over there have declined in popularity in recent decades. Still, this leaves large parts of the world with major gaps between the age of their leaders and their populations. What do you think? Should there be a retirement age for political leadership? Or are you sick of this ageist crap?
Take This Home: Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré is the youngest world leader at 34 years old while 91-year-old Paul Biya, president of Cameroon, is the oldest world leader.
