What has age got to do with it?

Harvinder Khetal

With Punjab going to the polls on February 4, the voters face a new government. But the faces of the prospective lawmakers, barring some fresh ones, are those same old ones. Some of them have been taking the ticket route to hop parties as if playing a game of musical chairs, with a poker-faced (showing no emotion) lack of ideology. They would save face (manage to avoid embarrassment) if they win after the big political volte-face (sudden change of a belief or plan to the opposite of what it was before). Otherwise, they would have egg on face (be humiliated).

But how many of them hold the power and vision to change the face of (alter it in a major way) state politics that is deeply mired in a cesspool of corruption, nepotism and ill-governance? 

So, while AAP has not yet revealed the face of its CM candidate, the other two main contending parties in the 2017 elections — SAD-BJP combine and Congress — have entered the face-off (confrontation) with their old warhorses at the helm: Parkash Singh Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh. It’s a case of do or die for them. Thus, both have their game face on (denoting determination or resolve in the face of a difficult task).

Capt Amarinder Singh, the 75-year-old scion of the Patiala royal family, has declared that this is the last time that he is fighting an election since at the next electoral outing, he would be 80 and too old. 

However, Badal doesn’t seem to think so and has not lost steam yet. Despite facing a huge anti-incumbency, at 89, he is one of the oldest political leaders still going strong and facing the electorate. Interestingly, the SAD patriarch has served as Punjab Chief Minister for five terms and the first time when he became one in 1970, he was the youngest chief minister of an Indian state. 

Last year, VS Achuthanandan defied age as at 92, he contested and won his seat in the 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election. However, despite being the face and most recognisable leader of the winner, Left Democratic Front (LDF), VS was not selected as Chief Minister by the front.

This brings to mind gerontocracy (from Greek geron, meaning old man). Gerontocracy is a state, society, or group governed by old people. The practice was prevalent in ancient Greece.

However, worldwide, these days there is a trend for having young leaders, whether in politics or organisations. It is reflective of ageism, a term coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism. He said ageism comprised prejudicial attitudes towards older people, old age, and the aging process; as also practices and policies that perpetuate stereotypes about elderly people.

At the same time, it also brings to mind that thing that is happening to all of us all the time, that which is inevitable and yet we would like to deny: that of growing old. When we get those gray specks in our hair, we colour them and think, all is well. We go to our room and forget why we went there, but gloss it over. Our reflexes slow down, but we refuse to feel down and out. Well, nothing wrong in all this. After all, we must keep living to the hilt, till we can. What has age to do with it? But, it must come with acceptance. It’s perhaps easier if you believe that with aging comes maturity. A ripening from having been there, done that, right from infancy and through childhood, adolescence, youth and middle age before being honoured with the status of a senior citizen.

As Andy Rooney said: “It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone.” 

But Agatha Christie has identified (jokingly) one who does find getting old appealing. She says wittingly: “An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.”

The study of physical, social and mental changes that accompany maturity and development led Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903 to mint a word: gerontology. Gerontology is the study of the maturing of people as they move from middle age to the senior state. The social and cultural aspects cover areas how an elder interacts with others and how society interacts with an elder. The psychological and cognitive changes include how thoughts and memories change. The physical repercussions apparent in muscles, skeleton and hormones comprise the biological repercussions of aging. It is different from geriatrics, which is the branch of medicine that specialises in the treatment of diseases in older adults.

Coming back to gerontocracy, Japan's 82-year-old Emperor Akihito has indicated he wants to and allow his oldest son to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne at the start of 2019.

As they say, long live the king.

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