The BJP government's paralysis is exposed more clearly with each passing day ... Despite the BJP desperately projecting (him) as a statesman and an able administrator ... Vajpayee's way of handling intractable problems is to simply cave in: it has happened with Thackeray, Mamata, Jayalalitha and now with Uma Bharati. He takes the easy option: give Uma Bharati independent charge. It does not matter ... that thereby a senior Cabinet minister is administered a clear wrap across the knuckles

Vajpayee and members of his government, quake whenever senior functionaries of the Sangh Parivar direct a malevolent glare in their direction. The ideological ground that the BJP clings to - rabid majoritarian communalism - cannot be cultivated without crucial assistance of the Sangh Parivar, led by men like Singhal and Kishore ... That the RSS has backed one of its influential members against another is also significant. It brings into the open, once again, the fact that the supposed monolith and the much extolled discipline of the Sangh Parivar constituents has not survived the blandishments of office.