... The "soft" and "liberal", Atal Behari Vajpayee has been fondly called "the right man in the wrong party", and one of PLUs (People Like Us) (and) credited with pluralism, moderation, consensual politics, even secularism. The ... strong version depicts Vajpayee as the Boy on the Burning Deck, fighting a valiant, lonely battle to bring to heel the Sangh Parivar's "lunatic fringe". The weak variety portrays him as a "pragmatic" politician constrained by his RSS past and by pressure from BJP hardliners, but one who at least tries to chart out an autonomous course rather than be a slave to Hindutva.

The time has come to question and reject the stereotype, and recognise that the "fringe" is, or is becoming, the mainstream ... Many secular people once thought Vajpayee is the "acceptable", "liberal" face of Hindutva. They made wishful, often fanciful, distinctions between him and hardcore RSS supporters ... The "soft" façade is deceptive. The Sangh, as he himself said, is Vajpayee's soul.  (Source: The Frontline, 3 March, 2000)