As one of only a handful of journalists in this country who do not believe Lal Krishna Advani is Hindutva's devil incarnate, it both saddened and sickened me to see him defend the Bajrang Dal ...

... What happened in Orissa was evil and would per-haps not have happened if the home minister's friends in the Bajrang Dal had not spent the past 10 months spread-ing hatred against Christians and Muslims. Whatever the leaders of the Sangh Parivar may say about organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal being "cultural" rather than political, what we have seen ... is a mainly political agenda. An agenda whose entire basis, whose raison d'etre is communalism of the most vicious kind.

Unfortunately, as home minister, Advani has allowed not just the Bajrang Dal to get away with its depredations but has also allowed Bal Thackeray to get away with criminal acts that should have put him behind bars years ago ...

What we have seen in the past 10 months ... is a state that has been not just soft but really quite selective in its softness. Advani, as an example of his firmness, told me how tough the Government had been with extremists in Kashmir. Could it be only because they are Muslim?

I have never believed Advani is anti-Muslim. I have also agreed with many points he has raised in his fight against what he calls pseudo-secularism. But when he stands up publicly and defends the Bajrang Dal – instead of banning it - I begin to get seriously worried about  what his plans as home minister are.

Has the anti-Christian mood that we now see spread-ing from Gujarat to Orissa been deliberately created? Is it true that anti-Christianism was the underlying theme of a recent RSS meeting in Nagpur? Is it true the RSS believes it is Advani rather than Vajpayee who will carry forward its agenda? (Source: The India Today, 8 February, 1999)