Are the good times coming to an end for the BJP-led government? The allies as usual are rallying round the Prime Minister, but that other source of trouble -- the RSS - is once again breathing fire ... The RSS had become the picture of cooperation under the genteel Rajju Bhaiya ... If the advent of K.S. Sudarshan upset this happy balance, it was not by accident. Sudarshan is a known hard-liner, and indeed, almost the first thing the new RSS chief did on taking charge was to prophesy an epic war between Hindus and anti-Hindus. This was RSS-speak we hadn't heard in some time. After that shrill rhetoric, now the RSS is on specifics. Sudarshan has a long list of dos and don'ts for the BJP - scrap Article 370, get the Ayodhya temple from the Muslims, forget foreign direct investment etc. Worse. Sudarshan makes mince-meat of Sheikh Abdullah by alleging that he worked for separation from India. The last bit is ominous for the BJP, especially considering the current sensitivities of its ally, the National Conference. There's a lot the Farooq Abdullah-led NC will put up with -including a thundering 'No' on the autonomy proposals - but it will not hear a word said against the Sher-e- Kashmir. And most certainly not from the RSS, which it views with enormous suspicion.

There is no mistaking the signals from Nagpur. The RSS wants the National Conference given the boot. RSS sources first merely hinted at this; later at its conclave in Ahmedabad, the Sangh actually asked the BJP to consider breaking ties with the NC. Sudarshan's attack on Article 370 and Sheikh Abdullah seems like a deliberate provocation ... If the BJP won't do the needful, force the NC to bite the bait ... The significance of the NC goes beyond its two MPs. In other words, while physically the NDA can withstand the exit of the NC, emotionally it cannot. Currently Farooq Abdullah is more than a mere ally of the BJP; in the aftermath of the autonomy struggle he has become something of a martyr, not just within the NC, but also for some of NDA's other constituents ... The spillover will affect the NDA as a whole. It is crucially important, then, (for the) Vajpayee government (to) weather this all new-RSS storm ..