No country for young men ...

31% of Indian population is below 15 years. Another 30% is below 40 years. While the representation of the former is not expected in the Union Cabinet, the lack of representation of the latter is really surprising. After the hundreds of hours spent by media and Congress leaders talking about youth, there isn't a single representative below 40 in the list of Cabinet ministers announced on 22nd May. In fact, there isn't one below 50!

• Gang of 70s: 77 - SM Krishna, 76 - Manmohan Singh, 74 - BK Handique, 73 - Pranab Mukherjee, 72 - Murli Deora, 71 - Vayalar Ravi
  
• Early retirees (60s): 69 - Veerappa Moily, 68 - Sharad Pawar, AK Anthony, 67 - Jaipal Reddy, Sushilkumar Shinde, 65 - Ambika Soni, 64 - P Chidambaram, Meira Kumar, 62 - Kamal Nath, 60 - Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal
  
• "Young Blood" (50s): 58 - CP Joshi, 56 - Anand Sharma, 54 - Mamta Banerjee
  

That's a grand total of 3 folks below 60; 11 in the 60s and 6 in the 70s. Congress really needs to search and understand the meaning of youth in the dictionary. 

Another interesting analysis reveals the ministry by states and the actual no. of seats received by Congress in these states (LS only): AP - 1 of 33; Assam - 1 of 7; Bihar - 1 of 2; Delhi - 1 of 7; Karnataka - 1 of 6; MP - 1 of 12; Rajasthan - 1 of 20; Tamil Nadu - 1 of 8; WB - 1 of 6. Rest - 0 of 106 including UP (21), Maharastra (17), Kerala (13) and Gujarat (11). In fact, of the 18 Congress ministers (incl PM), 9 come from Rajya Sabha and were not elected by the people in the recent polls. Dr. Singh, Deora, V Ravi, Anthony, Shinde, Soni, Azad, Anand Sharma and Krishna. 

So, can the Congress stop harping about "Youth" and "People's mandate". Political parties have very little respect with the general public because of deceptions like this.

Why can't we have events like this in India?

Obama attended the Whitehouse Correspondent's dinner and gave a wonderful speech - full of self-deprecating humor lines and pulling the legs of his friends and foes alike. However, the star of the day wasn't Obama. The honor goes to Wanda Skyes. I haven't heard much about this lady before, but boy, was she funny! In fact, she went beyond funny, she was amazing. The way she took Dick Cheney to task was brilliant, not only because of the message, but the way she encapsulated it in humour. 

And it makes me wonder, imagine an event like this in India - where all our politicians get together for charity and crack jokes at each other. Laloo taking a dig at Mayawati in good humour; Modi chiding Prakash Karat; Karunanidhi going all-out against Advani. Wish that day comes sooner ...