... L.K. Advani has always been seen as the RSS' preferred candidate. He was, after all, the man who took the BJP away from Vajpayee's liberal-moderate agenda and turned it into the party of Masjid, mandir and mayhem. Few can deny that Advani was spectacularly successful in turning Hindutva into a vote-winning issue. Equally, it is also true that when the BJP did eventually assume office, it was on the basis of a Vajpayee-like moderation and not on Advani's Hindutva agenda.

... Towards the end of the NDA's first term, Advani suddenly began suggesting that his own views were not that different from Vajpayee's and that the hardline image was only a hangover of the Ayodhya movement.

In recent months, Advani has taken a moderate line on nearly every issue of consequence. So sensible have his positions been that many people began talking of him as a leader in the Vajpayee mould ... However, Advani has (now) sent out conflicting signals. There was no need for him to turn up to bless the RSS faithful in Agra. And his latest statement, saying that the RSS is to the BJP what Mahatma Gandhi was to the Congress, will shock many moderates.

Why is Advani throwing away the moderate image? ... It could be that his friends in the Sangh have taken time off from haranguing Christians, lecturing Muslims and bad-mouthing Vajpayee to convey their displeasure. After all, Advani is their man. And they probably don't like the moderate noises he is making.