VHP on leash, RSS with him, PM sugars his Gujarat pill

The PM’s sunny mood was apparently the result of a telephone conversation he had with senior RSS leader H V Sheshadri yesterday. Responding to Vajpayee’s apprehensions about the possibility of communal violence if the VHP goes ahead with its programme, Sheshadri is believed to have agreed to issue instructions to Sangh cadres not to violate the ban and restrict themselves to courting arrest peacefully.

Alarm bells have been ringing in the PMO after the VHP announced culmination of its yatra in Ahmedabad on December 6, the day the Babri Masjid was demolished. Id this year falls the same day.

The VHP remained defiant today, but government sources said they were confident the RSS will restrain the organisation. This confidence had Vajpayee waving away questions today about tension in Gujarat and the ‘‘mahabharat’’ within the Sangh Parivar. ‘‘There is no tension,’’ he said. ‘‘If this is a mahabharat, how will you describe what is going to happen later?’’ It was typical Vajpayeespeak — open to interpretation, laced with humour.

With a stormy winter session of Parliament expected from Monday, today’s lunch seemed to be a pre-emptive step to blunt impressions of a somnambulent government.

The disinvestment controversy, UP crisis and Gujarat have contributed to a picture of a government at war with itself. Vajpayee parried controversial questions with his usual humour and refused to disturb the informal atmosphere with a solemn message for the media on National Press Day. He scotched speculation that he would not campaign in Gujarat, saying he would go ‘‘if asked’’.

Asked if he needed an invitation, he said if things were not going well, he would be invited. ‘‘So if you go there, it means things are bad for the BJP,’’ shot back a journalist. The PM went into peals of laughter.