AA Edit | Can we have 21-year-old MLAs?
Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy has called for lowering the minimum age criteria for contesting Assembly elections from the current 25 years to 21 years to ensure that political representatives reflect the country’s young demographic.
According to Articles 84 and 174 of the Constitution, the minimum age for members of the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies is 25 years, and for members of the Rajya Sabha and state legislative councils it is 30 years. The minimum age to become a member of panchayati raj institutions at village, block and district level is 21 years.
The Telangana CM argued that if an 18-year-old can be allowed to vote and if a 21-year old can become an administrator by clearing the civil services examination, why can we not allow a 21-year-old person to join the democratic process by contesting elections?
A similar view was expressed last August by the parliamentary standing committee on law and personnel by recommending the lowering of the age limit for contesting elections for the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha to 18 years.
The proposal sounds good considering that 50 per cent of India’s population is less than 25 years old and 65 per cent of its population is less than 35. Therefore, lowering the age limit is a fair and plausible idea. However, it invites some basic questions.
Though the minimum age to contest Assembly elections is 25, only six per cent of the current Telangana Assembly members are aged between 25 and 40. More than half of the members fall in the bracket of 56 and 70 years. Unless and until political parties give a chance to younger members to contest elections, an attempt to lower the age — despite being a progressive idea — would merely be an academic exercise.