During the discussion on the 1996 Lok Sabha elections in the subsequent South Asia conference in Madison, Paul Brass cut short musings by some panelists about Vajpayee’s “moderate views” with the curt reminder that “Vajpayee is a dyed-in-the-wool RSS man”. This is quite right, but the question is: should this make us suspect Vajpayee’s “progressive” statements, or should it make us rethink our frozen views about RSS “Rightism
