The feeling is shared from an Army officer to a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan in a bunker here, though the logic behind the disappointment vary. ``It is this government that could muster courage to go against the West and conduct nuclear tests,'' a Major of a Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit said. ``National security had been at the top of their agenda and it is evident from the support the troops received here while tackling insurgency,'' he affirmed.

A BSF officer, commanding a battalion in Srinagar downtown, said, ``We are laying our lives here defending the country's sovereignty. At least the BJP had that spirit of national pride to keep us going,'' he said. For Prem Singh, a BSF jawan from Rajasthan, there is more emotion than logic behind the disappointment. Sympathy seems to lie more withVajpayee than his party. ``Vajpayeeji is great. We like him, he should have not been forced to step down,'' he said. Nearly all the jawans in his bunker were staunch supporters of the BJP, because of its `nationalistic' character. A BSF officer said, ``The general feeling is that the old man should have been allowed to carry on and stabilise the nation,'' he said. ``The security force officers on counter-insurgency duty here had a soft corner for the Vajpayee Government for its rejuvenation of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan slogan,'' the officer said.

``The middle-rung officers and the jawans, however, identify more with this Government and the senior Cabinet ministers visiting forward posts like Siachen and interacting with them. This always has an emotional appeal,'' he said.

But the officer admitted in the same breath that nothing has changed on the ground-level during these 13 months. But the Lahore trip seems to have made an impact.

An officer said, ``To put an end to this violence, there is aneed to improve relations with Pakistan so that they stop abetting militancy here,'' he said. `` Vajpayee had managed to normalise relations with Pakistan to a great extent.''