Meanwhile, let me straightaway confess that I don’t relish challenging Atal Behari Vajpayee. My few encounters with him have always been exceedingly cordial and despite the barbs I throw at him in my columns, he exudes a genuine warmth. Unlike, say, L.K. Advani he is not paranoid about criticism. Friends warn me I am deluded, but both my heart and head tell me he is a fundamentally decent man fallen among men and women who are not so fundamentally decent. However, I don’t think I will be booked under the Official Secrets Act if I reveal that Atalji is not a nuts-and-bolts PM. He prefers to paint the big picture, leaving it to his aides to fill in the blanks.