Moreover, having always complained about other political parties not allowing it to come to power, the party has to prove that it can also be trusted with power. After all, its future now depends squarely onthe performance of the government, rather than any slogans the party coins. It is of little consequence who leads the party or what programmes it pursues. Under Advani, the party had grown phenomenally, thanks mainly to the purposive leadership he provided, the hallmark of which was Hindutva. But successive elections to both the Lok Sabha and state assemblies showed that its appeal had reached a plateau.

But for this saturation, the BJP would not have faced the compulsions of running a coalition of disparate parties. As it looks ahead, it cannot be oblivious to the limitations of Hindutva in a country of heterogeneous cultures. Election results have conclusively proved that the razing of the Babri Masjid in 1992 did not have the approval of the majority of even those who were enthused by Hindutva. In the last elections, it was the strategic alliance that the BJP forged with some regional parties and the diminished image of the Congress on account of the corruption charges its leaders face that helped theparty. To really fill the slot vacated by the Congress, the BJP has to attract to its fold a vast section of the population which has so far remained aloof from the party. The BJP would have been in a comfortable position to provide a government of its own if only a significant section of the minorities had sided with the party in the last elections. Besides, the BJP also has to reverse its record as a non-performer, as underscored by the fact that the party was voted out at the first available opportunity in all the states where it came to power. Yet, when Thakre or Advani refers to Hindutva in a loose manner, it only means that the BJP cannot altogether abandon its distinctive agenda, particularly when there is uncertainty about the durability of the coalition it heads. Now that the party is in power, it will be judged by what it does rather than what it says. The exhortation to the minorities to leave the pseudo-secularists and join hands with the BJP will carry greater conviction if the party restrainsloose cannons in the Sangh Parivar, who make periodic threats to repeat Ayodhya at Kashi and Mathura.