With a friendly Government at the Centre and in Nome of the states, (the RSS) may well feel that a chance lo achieve what it wants may never come again ...

While the exhortation to the Muslims to accept Hindu mythological heroes as part of their 'cultural" heritage, as in Indonesia, is an old one, the RSS' latest preoccupation with Christians has made it come up with ideas which have a more specific connotation. It is not only that the suggestion for a swadeshi church can be resented by a community, whose faith is claimed to be older than that of Buropeans, as unwarranted advice on its institutional framework; it is also a slur which is more explicit in the allegations of subversive activity by Christians in the North-east. The broad hint in these statements - that the Muslims and Christians cannot be regarded as 'nationalists' unless they 'Indianise' or 'Hinduise themselves - is as old as the RSS ... What is new is the hoost which such ideas have received because of the BJP's present stint in power.

The RSS' realization, however, that it cannot press its ogenda too eagerly in case it has an unsettling effect on the Vajpayee Government has complicated its task, for it vannot be too forthright about its own propaganda ...

Arguably, the taming of the BJP because of the compulsions of power now includes the RSS as well. The only difference is that while the BJP is at present also restrained in its utterances, the RSS has no such need. The result is that its divisive thesis will continue to sow seeds of doubt among Indians of different faiths.

Loaves and Fishes - Editorial, The Hindustan Times, 20 Oct., 2000

Union Home Minister L.K. Advani's recent observation that the RSS exerts a 'moral' influence on the present Government (much as Gandhi did on Nehru's and Jayaprakash Narayan on Morarji Desai's) perhaps tells us more than anything else that the name of the game is power, and that there is little that the NDA constituents will allow to come in the way of keeping it. The singular lack of a ... reaction to (the) statement from the BJP's allies (apart from the) TDP and the JD(U) which have had Kome pretty obvious but innocuous things to say – should confirm to the RSS as well as its opponents that neither a point of moral or philosophical principle nor substantive differences on policy is likely to wean any of the BJP's present allies away from its share of the loaves and fishes of office.

By hearing Advani without twitching a muscle, what the allies have done, in effect, is to obliterate the difference between a BJP Government and a Government of the NDA.

By demonstrating the point so succinctly, Advani has, strictly from the BJP's point of view, once again led from the front. If the BJP wishes to be flagrant or venturesome, now it can even think of taking up issues that it was leaving for the day when it will have the parliamentary numbers right ... It has been shown for the first time in India's public life that cohabiting with ideological foes can be a pleasant pastime if power-sharing is also on offer.