Has Atal Behari Vajpayee the "moderate" usurped the centrist position in Indian politics, once the monopoly of Congress Prime ministers? If so, does this mean the Sangh Parivar's Hindutva ideology has been diluted and its hard- liners marginalised?

No, says veteran Congressman V.N. Gadgil, who counts Vajpayee among the "best political actors of our time." Claiming that Vajpayee is as much an RSS man as LK Advani or M.M. Joshi, Gadgil contends, "Vajpayee hasn't given up the party's basic agenda. It's for the sake of power that he is pretending to have adopted a different agenda."

Gadgil's view, ironically, is endorsed by minister of state for youth and sports Uma Bharati. Known to be a hard-liner and LK Advani loyalist, she feels that though Vajpayee is perceived as a moderate, there is no way the party's agenda of Article 370, Ayodhya and the uniform civil code will ever be diluted.

"Our own house (read government) is yet to come into being. Once that happens we will decorate it the way we want. There is no denying that," she asserts. In other words, it is the compulsions of coalition politics, and not Vajpayee, which has persuaded the Sangh to put its agenda in abeyance.

Asks Gadgil: Can any of Vajpayee's actions in the last 16 months qualify him as a moderate? First, the three key ministries of home, human resource development and  information and broadcasting are in the hands of hardcore BJP leaders. Second, the RSS cadres have percolated in every institution of eminence in this country. Third, the mindless attacks on Christians early this year – and Vajpayee's ambiguous stance - demonstrated where his sympathy lay.

But veteran journalist and Rajya Sabha MP Kuldip Nayar does not doubt Vajpayee's liberal attitude. His proof: Vajpayee overcame the typical RSS mindset to ride the bus to Lahore. But he does agree that Vajpayee's policy cannot militate against the Sangh's ultimate agenda of creating a Hindu Rashtra.

Why, then, is Vajpayee perceived to be occupying the central position in Indian politics? .... " Nationalistic (or jingoistic) fervour has given a wider base, socially and regionally, to Vajpayee - and this has created the impression that he means something to everyone, which is the defining characteristic of the centrist position.

The moot point, however, is whether or not this new- found popularity - and, therefore, the centrist position - will ever get institutionalised. Explains Partha Chatterjee of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta ... If the BJP fails to come to power, or its government falls quickly again, the hard-liners will assert themselves."

Gadgil and Nayar feel the hard-liners have taken a backseat because they realise that only Vajpayee can deliver them power, crucial to their 'goal of implementing the Hindutva agenda. Sums up Gadgil: "At one level, it allows Vajpayee to have. his say ... and at another, it allows the RSS to percolate quietly. Nobody now talks about bringing changes in the school syllabus – and that's because they have been doing this with much dedication and state patronage." Indeed, Vajpayee can't occupy the centrist position in Indian politics until he takes on and tames the hot headed activists of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or publicly condemns or distances himself from the Sangh's Hindutva philosophy.

This is difficult to presage, but what is clear, says Chatterjee, is that the temporary truce between the BJP's government wing (read Vajpayee) and the organisation will come under strain if Vajpayee returns to power. The restive cadres will want the reluctant government, hamstrung by allies, to implement the Hindutva agenda ...

Gadgil says that, for the moment, Vajpayee has arrogated to himself one attribute of a popular centrist leader which had been denied to him and the Sangh for decades: he is no longer an untouchable in Indian politics anymore; even the socialists have sanctified him. (Source: The Hindustan Times, 22 August, 1999)