Doubtless, on many matters close to the BJP's heart (the Pokhran blasts last May, the campaign against Christian missionaries, Sonia Gandhi's place of birth) we have opposed the Vajpayee government. But there are many 'achievements' Outlook has unreservedly and enthusiastically supported— the bus ride to Lahore and the moderately balanced budget, to name just two. The difficulty for people who try and exercise independent judgement today is that the middle ground, or what W.B. Yeats called the Centre, in public debate is fast disappearing and will soon become extinct.
For instance, when the BJP and its friends in the media claim that Christians have launched a well-organised programme, in conjunction with the Vatican, Sonia and assorted western powers, to subdue and dominate Hindus by the year 2001, one is willynilly pushed into taking a position as one-sided and blinkered as that of, say, George Fernandes or Murli Manohar Joshi or Ashok Singhal. In this partisan and polarised milieu, truth is the first casualty. While the allegation is clearly preposterous, it is correct that there is a lunatic fringe among Christian missionaries— The Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Gospel for Asia, Harvest Mission Church et al— whose zeal for conversions is both excessive and objectionable. However, this fringe constitutes a tiny minority among the main body of missionaries who, while propagating the faith, work within the law and do commendable work which benefits society at large. Alas, in the charged environment the BJP has helped to create, this balance gets lost and people like me end up sounding nearly as rabid as Uma Bharati.