...Except for its role in the Shah Bano case, all the other issues taken up by the BJP are as empty as they are impracticable... The BJP is not Bharatiya Janata Party but 'Bharatiya Jhadada Party' and the RSS is 'Rashtra Samaj Shatru'. Such communal parties need to be banned in the national interest.
Editorial, The Hindustan Times, 6 February, 1991
The Bharatiya Janata Party exudes ample self-confidence when it claims it can provide the country with 'an alternative political culture' as distinct from Congress-I culture. The BJP has certainly its distinctive qualities and in the political spectrum, it stands apart from other parties. But to emerge as a national alternative... it requires not only greater strength and dynamism but also greater adaptability and flexibility... What the BJP has to offer to the nation will ultimately decide whether it can be accepted by the people.
The BJP's dismal performance in the district council elections in Kerala is a clear indication that the mandir issue alone cannot fetch votes for the party... Evidently, the BJP is out of tune with the times. Its criticism of what it labels as pseudo-secularism has become a recurring theme and is beginning to look like a worn-out and over-used slogan. The party is reluctant to recognise that Indian culture is a composite one, requiring a more liberal outlook that goes beyond the current rhetoric. What keeps India as one country is its unity in diversity.
No evidence has come from its Jaipur session that the BJP is fully conscious of this fact or that it is prepared to provide leadership to the entire people and not just to the majority community. Even liberal voices, like that of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, are being drowned out by the party which mentally is still riding the Rath... Somewhere along the line the BJP is giving the impression that it continues to look backwards and is unable to adjust itself to the needs of an India and the world that are caught in the process of change.
Editorial, The Statesman, New Delhi, February, 91
...According to Mr. Kanshi Ram barring the BJP, all political parties, but especially the Congress(I), have sought electoral adjustments with his party... It may well be asked whether the rise of... small parties would be at all desirable, and whether it would not make for even greater political confusion. The need is for a clear polarisation, not for further fracturing of the polity, which is what small parties like the BSP are effecting. Mr. Kanshi Ram has, of course, announced that his prime objective is to deny a majority to any party or group... If only the large parties refrain from courting groups like the BSP for electoral alliances and, in the process, endowing them with an importance that they do not deserve, the latter would be cut to their true size, with considerable reduction in their potential for confusion.
The Statesman, 12 March, 1991
...The BJP has... been playing several games at the same time... Currently operating at different levels, using the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to maintain the tempo of the demolish-the-mosque campaign, and keeping the Bajrang Dal waiting in the wings for use as a storm-trooping force if the need arises, while the party itself had adopted a relatively low-key posture, adding 'roti' to Ram... With elections in the offing, the BJP can be expected to follow this dual strategy with even greater determination... If only to deceive the Election Commission which takes a dim view of those who spread communally.