... Even if the NDA were to secure more than 300 seats, the verdict would not be an expression of support for the attacks on the institutions that was undertaken by the BJP and its allies. The Prime Minister lent his voice and name to these attacks. In the process, the offices of President, Election Commission and Director of Intelligence Bureau were sought to be controversialised. Several Cabinet Ministers openly criticised the President, without inviting any public reprimand from the Prime Minister for the Constitutional solecism. Again, Vajpayee publicly criticised the Election Commission, all in the partisan cause of the BJP-JD(U) combine in Bihar; and, the Defence Minister dragged the DIB in an entirely avoidable controversy. Collectively, these utterances constituted an assault on the Constitutional arrangement, and it would not do for anyone to interpret a pro-NDA verdict as a vindication of those ill-conceived, illiberal and unconstitutional impulses. The NDA would have no mandate whatsoever to monkey around with the Constitution. Whatever the numbers the verdict would not be an reaffirmation of the Kargil "victory" and its inherent promise of gleeful militarisation ...

By the end of the campaign, the Kargil theme faded away from the Prime Minister's own rhetoric. "Kargil" was a non-issue for the masses. It would, therefore, be a gross distortion of the popular mood if a majority for the NDA were to be interpreted as a mandate for reckless spending on the military and an equally reckless pursuit of a militarised foreign policy ...

Nor will a pro-NDA verdict, however decisive, be a popular approval of the descent into political indecency of the kind practised by Pramod Mahajan, George Fernandes and others ... And, lastly, irrespective of the kind of majority, if at all any, the NDA cobbles together it would be a comprehensive rejection of the majoritarian intolerance of the Sangh Parivar. The very fact that the NDA agenda had to eschew all those divisive issues – the Ram Mandir, Article 370, a uniform civil code - is an acknowledgement that the country has moved beyond the religious divide that Mr. Advani and rs sought to impose on the polity ... NDA's ... success can in no way be appropriated by the Sangh Parivar as an acceptance of its agenda, hidden or otherwise.

... The verdict can only refleut me fractiousness and fragmentation dormant in the Indian society ... Any attempt to hijack the mandate would produce instant dysfunctionality and disorder. (Source: The Hindu, 6 October, 1999)