Can political leaders serve people and be remembered by people after their death?

By Sudhansu R Das 
Hundreds of political leaders have come and gone; nobody remembers them. Those who have sacrificed and contributed to build the country are always remembered even after their deaths. Political career gives an opportunity to a leader to live in the hearts of people even after his death. Seva through politics in a democratic country is one of the best professions in the world. Leaders who come to serve people acquire immense power which comes from the people only. Winning elections is not important. Winning the hearts of people through seva is better than winning elections through freebies.
Political aspirants should learn to walk and reach people. Walking and meeting people should be converted into a routine activity for the young political aspirants. The more you walk the more you become rich with experience and knowledge; popularity will come automatically. In the mythologies, Lord Rama walked in the forest, hills and villages for 14 years to be a noble king; he experienced the problems of his subjects; he came to know the ground reality. Lord Rama used to move in disguise to know the real condition of the common man. He used to eradicate the corrupt and sycophant adhikaris from the system with ruthless accuracy. 

Nobody was near and dear to him in the governance mechanism; the perfect Rajdharma had kept his people and his kingdom above personal interest. His method was followed by great kings and monarchs in the later period. Only the honest, strong and the brave Khetriya power had the capacity to do away with the sycophants courtiers who have polluted the economy, society and many political parties. The aspiring politicians should learn to detect the honest and loyal followers from the group of sycophants. Regular padyatra to meet people will give a mirror view of the sycophants who cook spurious data and feed it to their masters regularly.
The aspiring young leaders should make a profile of every village and urban center which will help them understand what are the specific infrastructures required for the people. They should work to protect and preserve the natural infrastructures like rivers, lakes, ponds, hills and forests in their region. The Pandavas walked for 13 years to eliminate the corrupt and the tyrants from the country to establish good governance. The warrior sage, Parshuram stalked the earth for 21 times to weed out the corrupt kings and their followers. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi walked for 79,000 km between 1914 to 1948 to become a mass leader; he gave India a Swadeshi Model of development which is still relevant for the entire world.
Young and educated politicians should walk to know the ground reality which will be a Brahmastra in the battle for good governance. They may not be able to give freebies to people, but they can give people the permanent solution to address the basic human needs. For example if people of a locality can save a natural lake, it will feed and generate income for thousands of local people.
If the political aspirants dive deep into the relevant issues related to basic human needs, they will come out with grass root level knowledge to pin the most powerful political opponents. The hazardous roads, rain flood, polluted air, contaminated water, adulterated food and the poor drainage system in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Cuttack, Kanpur, New Delhi and in scores of urban centers can bring victory to many young leaders. Unfortunately many young leaders do not walk nor do they have the will to serve people. They fail to come out of the shadows of the supremos.
The long presence of father, son, grand son, great grandson and the supremos in political parties has adversely affected the leadership growth. No leader should hold the top post of any political party for more than five years. They should willingly retire to make room for young leaders in the party.
Government employees, lawyers, doctors, professors, IT professionals, media people and teachers etc who are retired should contest election. Democracy in India desperately needs them; they need to rescue democracy from the vote bank politics. The thought of taking rest after retirement should be erased from their minds because rest will never come unless they build a healthy society around them. This is high time for the good, educated and courageous people to give a plunge into the political water.