Mr. Padgaonkar was the editor-in-chief of The Times of India and is still associated with the Times group. No matter how much the group is inclined towards the Congress Party, the fact is that people like Mr. Padgaonkar do not loose objectivity neither they abuse it. Many allies or the probable allies of the BJP in the NDA do not like Mr. Modi and there is imminent threat of JD(U) leaving the alliance and BJD not coming back to its fold.

A single law can describe the growth of the BJP: it can not grow without letting other grow. Deep in the south the BJP is still considered to be a Northern Indian Hindi chauvinist party and it does not have significant presence in the West Bengal and the North East. It can't abandon its stakes in a region known as the cow-belt, but if it continues to woo it in a Hindu way, its expansion elsewhere is limited. The BJP may emerge as the single largest party in 2014 general elections but may fail to form the governing coalition at the Centre.

It is true that the Congress is more inclusive than the BJP and its history is also more impressive than that of the BJP but these differences are insufficient to account for the differences in performances of the two parties at the Centre. This becomes more evident if the UPA is able to form the government at the Centre in 2014 in spite of unacceptable high levels of corruption and equally high inflation. Leaders matter a lot but the BJP too has charismatic leaders. Many of them are fair and Brahmins. So what ails the BJP? One needs to look at how Indian society was formed, how Hindus think and what are their beliefs about themselves.

Caucasians were minority and the majority among them accepted the native majority’s beliefs. But beliefs about color, caste later substantiated by the Westerners has made Hindus ‘wanderer in imaginaryland’ even though very few would admit. The opinion could be preconscious if not explicitly conscious. Few came but majority in the North, particularly elites and the middle classes, believe about the hybridization with the Caucasians with the latter being the majority. Southern Indians also believe, though wrongly, that civilization around Indus Valley; Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, was Dravidian in nature.

Hybridization with whites was quite soothing for the society which faced so much suppression and the theory is not wrong either. That was more like a political belief than like a social belief. As a people, Hindus have very high obsession with imports. They don’t accept their present position and also their brutalized past. In their hyperimagination they consider themselves somewhat different than what they are, relating themselves with Anglicans of respective classes. And this is largely true for Hindus of all classes.

The Gita is a fully Brahminical preaching, and it is the most authentic preaching establishing the permanent dominance of the Brahmins by formally making Brahmins the first caste among Hindus. Krishna, like Rama, should be considered as Brahmin-Kshatriya on earth. Krishna's help defeated the orthodox, parochial, sectarian and fastidious Kauravas by cosmopolitan, open-minded, non-sectarian and liberal Pandavas.

From that point onwards Hinduism has taken a Centrist stand. Even though Krishna preaches absolute asceticism and renunciation, the Gita is more inclined towards future Christianity than towards future Islam. And this is one of the most important reasons as to why Indian political history favors the Center over Right. Hindus as a majority have a strong dislike for Islamic version of Hinduism.

It was the updated consciousness imparted mostly by Britons, which was responsible for the Indians planning to show the exit door to British. The Indian freedom struggle was mostly centrist in nature and if the truth is to be spoken then it was largely middle class Hindu renaissance for a long time. Muslims joined very late, though the creation of Pakistan is a beauty from stability viewpoint. Right would have been very bad for Indian state had it been a dominant force during freedom struggle and negotiation with the British authorities. While it is true that Patel was a member of the RSS till Gandhi was assassinated, the fact is that he could be termed as a strong exception. India since its inception is West-staked and all Western countries invested in Nehru and his future family. The fact is that the Congress party was conglomerate of various ideologies and social groupings and still is. But changing consciousness is making newer political associations of various demographic constituents.

Congress should not dream much about getting majority in the general elections as it would be temporary. Congress can't continue its alliance intact if it eats into its allies' voting base. It can't get an absolute majority at the cost of its allies’ performance. But suppose it gets it, then opposition to the Congress would increase and the political untouchability of the BJP would decrease. In the next general election afterwards the Congress would have to face tougher opposition with many of its past allies going against it. It may loose the majority. The identity conflict and consciousness demands that no party should get an absolute majority.

Nobody should compare the BJP with Republicans and the Congress with the Democrats. The politics of the US is completely different from politics in India. Moreover, Republicans have ruled more than Democrats. True, initially women and African-Americans did not have voting rights. Mr. Obama’s re-election could affect Indian politics by letting Congress getting more allies more comfortably than the BJP doing so.

Therefore, the problem with the BJP is not its policies but the dominant demographic constituents’ interpretation of history. The BJP ideology does not fit into the imagination of the majority of the people whose lowest classes too have the wish to learn English and consume imported stuff. The BJP hardly gets votes of Muslims and therefore it starts with a weaker position than the Congress. Urbanization may not necessarily bring cheers to the BJP as it also is more likely to favor the Congress Party more. The reasons for differences in the performance of the BJP and the Congress other than the time factor are demographic factors and history of the subcontinent. One thing is certain that the Right has valid legitimacy in Indian politics but it can't oppose consumerism.