No Deadline for Retirement for Them

The retirement age is fixed arbitrarily. Supreme Court judges retire at 65, high court judges at 63, journalists majorly at 58, central, state and private sectors’ employees at 58 as well as at 60. When the Majithia Wage Board recommended increasing the age limit for journalists to 65, the then late Manmohan Singh-led government rejected it. There is not much difference between the works performed by the judges and the journalists.

The only tribe which does not have their retirement age fixed is politicians. They fix it and break it without any moral qualms. Chairmen of corporate houses’ boards also enjoy this privilege. A few years back, Infosys's chairman Narayan Murthy came out of retirement by making changes in the memorandum of articles to helm the company in the name of putting the house in order. A journalist of a South Indian English newspaper amended the rules when his retirement was approaching to continue as the chairman till 65.

The retirement issue was again in focus recently after RSS chief Mohan Baghwat backtracked on his suggestion that people should retire from public life after he or she reaches 75. People took his advice at its face value and hoped that both Bhagwat and Prime minister Narendra Modi would voluntarily retire to make way for others. But none of them gave any inkling that they are planning their retirement. Modi’s claim to the high pedestal of morality that he has no lust for power and that one day he will say bye-bye to power and leave the temporal works taking along his mundane things in his jhola now sounds hollow.

L.K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi must be looking askance at these developments in the party and the Sangh. They were sent to the Margdarshak Mandal after they reached 75. If Advani, Joshi and his ilks needed to retire for creating vacancies for those who had been standing in the line promotion for years, why the question is not resounding in the party leadership?

The party with difference has muted itself on the issue. Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said Modi would rule India for another 25’years. BJP prides itself on internal democracy. But when it comes to upholding it by a top leader for himself, he or she bypasses it. We can recall how Uma Bharti was arbitrarily removed from the chief ministership of Madhya Pradesh years back.

BJP is not alone in flouting their retirement age rule. Recently, D Raja of the CPI was elected national general secretary of the party, giving a go by to its rule of retirement at 75. Raja turned 76 this year. The party rejected objections to it raised by the Kerala unit of the party. Their demand for adhering to the retirement age of 75 for the general secretary was overruled by the leadership by forcing consensus on the Raja’ name.

Former Rajya Sabha member and party’s Kerala unit secretary Benoy Vishwam and AITUC general secretary Amarjeet Kaur were in line for the post. But CPM has been observing this age limit for retirement. Several senior leaders of the party took retirement when they reached 75 earlier this year. However, an exception was made for Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan who is 79.

Those who are ensconced in power are so much in love with the chair that they want to occupy it in perpetuation unless they are deposed by people or succumb to the physical mental frailties. But they manage their physical and mental weaknesses cleverly, delegating the power to their trusted lieutenants. The latest example is Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. He is not ready to retire even after giving enough evidence on public platforms that he is not mentally fit to rule. JDU sees his continuation as a political necessity.

We have also an example of then Tamil Nadu chief minister the late M.G. Ramachandran ruling the state in comatose. Similarly, Jayalalithaa came back to occupy the chief minister’s seat in Tamil Nadu after serving the jail term in a corruption case. We saw the spectacle of then BJP Goa’s chief minister Manohar Parrikar coming to the office in-tubed when he was suffering from cancer.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has written his thoughts named Xi Jinping Thought in the constitution to ensure his longevity even after his death. He has been president since 2018. American President and Republican leader Donald Trump crossed all the limits of sane behaviour when he was unseated from the White House in 2020. He ensured his renomination by the party for the 2024 presidential race and came to power a second term.

There is speculation about his third term. But it needs a constitutional amendment. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has been doing a musical chair to continue in power. He has been interchanging the posts of the president and the prime minister when the tenure limit for one post is exhausted. Democracy gets only a lip in democracies. Whether it is largest or the longest. As regards the internal democracy in political parties, howsoever you speak, it makes no difference to them.