A young, victorious cricket team returned to India and its victory in the Twenty20 World Cup was celebrated with great enthusiasm. Only two World Cup victories spread over a span of 24 years, the first registered by Kapil Dev and his players in the Prudential Cup in 1983, point to India’s inability to excel in cricket on a regular basis, develop and master fine techniques, put the game first, go for the kill each time and allow sponsorship, endorsements and other such distractions to take second place. The energy and infectious vitality of Dhoni’s boys must be sustained to guard against a slide back to ‘experienced lethargy’. Sadly, ‘experience’ in India is synonymous with status quo and regression. It is considered far more important to hit out, take risks, learn from mistakes, hone skills and create new realities. Both in cricket, our national sport, as well as in national politics, experience must be laid to rest and exuberance brought into play.

Rajiv Gandhi’s induction into the Congress working committee happened the same year as the World-Cup victory. Now Rahul Gandhi has become a member of the same body in the year of another World-Cup triumph. Having been a privileged witness to both generations taking hold of the reins, and having seen how the older generation schemed and plotted behind the scenes — mocking youth and its excitement, putting political boulders on young men’s path to preserve its own party fiefdoms — I only hope that this generation will assert itself to ensure that a repeat performance does not take place.

Retire to the forest

The old need to be kept at bay, far away from the ideas and methodologies that will take India into a phase of rapid growth and change. Ideology is constrained in a straitjacket of rules that discourage novel ways of thinking to deal with a changed world. The ideology of this young generation could well be based on values such as common sense, hard work, intellectual honesty, integrity and a rejection of false pretences and banal rhetoric. If that be the case, a new and dynamic work ethic could overwhelm and drown stale and archaic ideological positions, freeing India from a privileged class of politicians and administrators who have lived off the land.

The older generation that is dominating the country’s governance must step aside and only be available to those who seek their counsel. The elder- statesman status is what the older lot should be content with and they should get vicarious pleasure from watching the world around them turn full circle and rotate yet again. That is the true joy of the ageing process.

All those ancient men and women who go on and on about Hindu and Indian nationalism, who cling to their positions and titles, who quarrel with each other while trying to retain power, who can barely walk with comfort and ease but never let go, who left their prime four decades ago, should do what our sages and philosophers had advised; everyone should take vanavas after sixty-five years, having fulfilled their responsibilities of life. If politicians in India did what their culture demanded, we would be a lively, growing, working democracy, one that has absorbed modernity within the framework of its own cultural traditions. India would have then been a confident nation, assured of its place in the world.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the more vociferous voice in favour of Indian tradition, should lead the way and send its aged leaders to the forest. Enlightenment is essential for shifting gears, for extracting oneself from the mundane and predictable, from what is known and therefore comfortable. This generation must not allow itself to first age and then rule because then it will never be able to realize its dreams and meet the aspirations of the people.