India, Sept. 15 -- Our political leaders in the ruling party are getting old, and soon we will need younger, dynamic ones to lead our country.

But as I watch our netas thump their chests and roar into microphones, I feel like putting out an advertisement in the classifieds: "Wanted - A Statesman. Age no bar. Community no bar. Must be able to think beyond the next election."

Because while politicians are aplenty, statesmen are rarer than pothole-free roads after the monsoons.

A politician, you see, is busy counting votes. A statesman counts people. All people. Like Vajpayee did. Remember him? He didn't just speak, he soothed. He didn't just roar, he reassured. He didn't look at one community and say, "You are mine," and at another and m...