In a bid to revamp its ageing leadership, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has decided to set a retirement age of 75 years for all its members.
Once the proposal is endorsed at the party’s 23rd Congress, scheduled to be held in Kannur, Kerala in April 2022, the age limit will become applicable.
The Central Committee is the highest decision-making body of the party which, in turn, elects the Polit Bureau (PB) from its members.
“Our decision is that those who have crossed 75 years will be relieved from the Central Committee. The State Committee normally has a lower age ceiling but we have left it to them to decide it,” party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, addressing a press conference at the conclusion of the Central Committee meeting held from August 6 to 8.
Exceptions
If the rule is scrupulously applied, then 76-year-old Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who is also a member of the Polit Bureau, will have to step down.
“Last time also, we made exceptions for certain people. The party will decide for those holding key positions. But in principle the decision is to fix 75 years as the retirement age,” Mr. Yechury added.
An exception was made in 2018 Party Congress for Polit Bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai. The retirement age was 80-years. But Mr Pillai, who was 81 at that time, was retained. In the current 17-member Polit Bureau, Mr. Ramachandran is the oldest member and 64-year old Mohammed Salim and Nilotpal Basu are the youngest members.
The first step towards reducing the average age of members in the decision-making bodies was taken by the West Bengal State Committee. Currently, the State committee has decided not to induct any new member over the age of 60.
The age-ceiling will be applied in a two pronged way. First, the retirement age will be fixed at 75 for members in all the CPI(M)’s bodies including the Polit Bureau; second no new member above a certain age will be inducted in any of these forums.
The last influx of young leaders to the Central Committee was done in 1985 when current General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and former General Secretary Prakash Karat — both in their thirties then — were inducted. No similar effort at that scale has been made since.
