Rationally speaking, yes. But rationality does not determine the behaviour of those who have lived their life in an ideological-organisational cage. They feel lonely at the top. That is why, all of a sudden, throwing propriety and rationality to the wind, he addressed sants, mahants and sadhus in America to declare that he was a swayamsevak first and prime minister later. With that statement he had crossed the rubicon. Now he could not return to the virtual reality of the nda. The statement on Ayodhya and thereby ripping apart the mask was perhaps a psychological necessity. It was an effort to come out of the political loneliness. At the beginning of the year, he was a hero, a victor of the phony war in Kargil, a unifier of the unstable 24-party front and an icon of sorts. As the year came to a close, he looked like a Halloween mask.
Kumar Ketkar
Editor, Maharashtra Times