... The ISI will attempt during the coming months and years ... to encourage minority bashing ... Home Minister L.K. Advani ... has to ensure that India's image as a secular nation and an ancient civilisation is in no way tarnished by those indulging in meaningless rhetoric against the Papal visit ... Any inaction now will give subversiye forces a foothold from where they could encroach farther on India's traditional pluralistic society which has always accommodated diverse points of view ...

In the past, while both the Home Minister and the Prime Minister have professed concern and sympathy for those who have been targets of violence fuelled by bigotry, action against offenders has been notable by its absence. Unless at least a few of the top leaders of these extremist organisations are put in the dock, their misguided followers will continue to unwittingly further the ISI agenda of polarisation and disruption ...

For the BJP, it will mean distancing itself from its more extremist constituents, and through action against them ensuring that the weaker sections and the minorities ... feel protected and equal ... The BJP-led government has taken no action to ensure effective and impartial governance in Gujarat and UP. This will finally cost it these states, just as it did Maharashtra ...(Source: The Times of India, 6 November, 1999)