Rahul's young brigade gets the short shrift in Monday's reshuffle as average age of new cabinet ministers crosses 73 years.



Aspirational India, that hoped for a future in the hands of a young political leadership, just got the thumbs down. In what could be the last big cabinet expansion before the Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday inducted four cabinet ministers with an average age of 73 years, nearly 50 years over the average age of the Indian population.

Cabinet reshuffle: Almost all new ministers 65-plus



The oldest cabinet minister to be sworn- in is Rajasthan's veteran Congressman Sisram Ola at 86 years, older to the PM by five years, who had been dropped from the cabinet in 2009. Some in the party and the government cited his old age as one of the factors for easing him out. On Monday, he could barely read the oath of office and secrecy during the swearingin at Rashtrapati Bhavan.



With the latest inductions, Singh's cabinet of 32 ministers has become perhaps the oldest in recent history with an average age of a little above 67 years. Besides, the four cabinet ministers, even the four junior ministers sworn in by President Pranab Mukherjee as part of the reshuffle exercise logged in at well above the official retirement age.The Manmohan Singh government appears to be generally partial to the old faithful, literally, over two terms. The average age of UPA I too was 67. By contrast, the Vajpayee Cabinet was younger with an average age of 61. Even that was high compared to some governments around the world. For instance, the cabinet headed by David Cameron in Britain is 53 years.There is confusion over what sort of message could the government be sending to a youthful India with its increasingly greying cabinet even though a set of young and dynamic partymen are waiting in the wings, all raring to go. In fact, the increase in grey hairs in the Manmohan Singh government fuels doubts whether it is in tune with the expectations of a young India. To many of them, Narendra Modi, who has just been named as the BJP's campaign committee chief, has emerged as a ray of hope.The ageing Cabinet raised doubts about Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi's persistent exhortation to the youth to join politics and his party. He has been on a nationwide yatra in the last few years trying to connect the grand old party with the country's young and restless population.A senior Congress member, who did not want to be identified, described the expansion as a lost opportunity". " With the BJP in disarray and the impressive line of young leaders that we have from Rahul's team, we could pushed them to the forefront and filled the opposition's vacuum with energetic fresh faces," he said, still hopeful of Congress's crown prince's larger role in the government in months ahead.As the question on Rahul was being raised, the PM added a new dimension to the debate saying he would be happy to see Rahul step into his shoes. Some attempted to interpret this as an indication that he wanted to hang up his boots and that he was not interested in having another shot at leading the government if the Congress were to return to power.Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad cited the " vast experience" of the new cabinet ministers and the " compulsions" to balance and represent all sections of the society. " There are certain compulsions within the party and the government. We have to balance all sections and their plus point is that they are very experienced and that comes in handy for the government," he said.Monday's reshuffle had clearly other priorities than youth. The party rewarded family loyalists.This saw the return of Oscar Fernandes and Girija Vyas to the cabinet. J. D. Seelam, another faithful from Andhra Pradesh, was rewarded with a berth in the council of ministers. So was Santosh Chowdhary, a Dalit Lok Sabha member from Punjab.Poll- bound states such as Rajasthan, which goes to polls later this year, and Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, which face elections next year, too were given wider representation.But the underlying mes- Comment The ministerial reshuffle, possibly the last before the general elections, comes as a huge disappointment. With several old faces among those sworn in, loyalty to the party leadership and electoral considerations seem to have prevailed over any regard for governance. The average age of the appointees leaves us wondering about the generational change in leadership that party vice- president Rahul Gandhi keeps speaking of. It's clear the government is not looking at any turnaround in performance in what remains of its tenure.Sage in this is that the Congress party's old guard has struck back with a vengeance.Poll- bound Rajasthan, where Congress faces a resurgent Vasundhara Raje and antiincumbency, got its second Cabinet berth after Ola in Girija Vyas. She is 67 years and will now head the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, which was vacated by Delhi strongman Ajay Maken.Another veteran Congressman who made it to the expanded UPA council of ministers is 72- year- old Oscar Fernandes, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist who was rewarded with the cabinet charge for ministry of road transport and highways which was vacated by C. P. Joshi.Maharashtra, which goes to the polls next year, has got an ST face in Manikrao Gavit, as minister of state for social justice and empowerment. At 79, he is another senior citizen.Similar caste considerations were kept in mind while inducting Santosh Chowdhury, 69, as minister of state for health and family welfare. The last man inducted as minister of state is EMS Natchiappan, who at 66 years can be considered ' young', compared to some others in the latest cabinet expansion.He will take charge of commerce and industry.