Friday, May 24th 08:43 PM IST
 

Politicians in India should have a retirement age

Lakshmi Chaudhry

Like everyone else, our politicians are elected to do a job. They ought to be subject to the same restraints placed on other employees. Age limits exist for a reason: to encourage the ascension of new talent, eliminate the potential for entrenched privilege, and ensure that the leadership reflects the changing times. All excellent reasons why it’s time to impose a retirement age for our political greybeards. Let them be governors, advisors, even presidents, hold ceremonial offices as reward for their long service. But the hard work of governing is best left to the relatively young. read less read more

Sandip Roy

In politics, voters want results. That might be an anti-corruption bill passed in parliament, or more bore wells in his constituency. But if they feel an older politician, with more experience and better connections, can bring home the bacon, why should they not vote for him or her? Politics, unlike most other careers, has one ultimate master – the public. If the public is willing to stomach an 87-year-old VS Achuthanandan running for office, then who are we to deprive them of the choice by an arbitrary age limit? Sure, we should have medical tests to determine competency and announce the result, but age by itself cannot be a cut-off.read less read more