When Vajpayee referred to the peaceful struggle for independence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, he also remembered that there was a parallel not-so-peaceful struggle in which many people became martyrs. In other words, he is not prepared to give the Congress the sole credit for attaining freedom. There is something unusual about his announcement that some welfare schemes would be implemented from next Diwali, when in the past government programmes were seldom linked to any religious festivals. The overtly secular may also find references to several Hindu religious leaders a departure from tradition. This does not however detract from the firm commitment the Prime Minister made about the secularnature of the Indian state. Such an assertion was in the fitness of things as the previous evening the President had told the nation that mobilisation of people on religious or caste lines was not possible in India. It was a warning against those elements now sulking on the sidelines of the polity who think that the route to national progress and rejuvenation is through the communal path. Warning of another kind was implied in Vajpayee's statement that he was not enamoured of power and would not succumb to undue pressures to stay in office. Obviously, his target is the coalition partners of the BJP which have been giving him sleepless nights over petty issues.

While Vajpayee's speech will go down as an attempt to project national confidence and determination be it on squaring up to the proxy war Pakistan wages in Jammu and Kashmir or giving a fillip to science and technology, his explanation on the women's Bill will hardly convince. Similarly, few will believe that corruption can be fought merely byincluding the Prime Minister within the purview of the proposed Lok Pal Bill. The promise to create 10 crore jobs in 10 years reminds one of the saying that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. However, what's more important is his assertion, as exemplified by his reference to swadeshi, that his government will not be a prisoner of ideas in taking the country on its march to progress.