Indian press suspicious of Advani

The elevation of Indian Home Minister LK Advani to the post of deputy prime minister has provoked a critical response from the country's leading English newspapers.

Most believe the announcement ahead of a major cabinet re-shuffle is indicative of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party's intention to return to its hard-line roots.

The Hindu says in its editorial that Mr Advani's position as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's "natural" successor has always been known.

But the widely respected daily argues that his "formal appointment as deputy premier has only reinforced the impression that the BJP is preparing to reveal its real face."

Advani looks set to be the next prime minister

The paper cites recent moves including the recent appointment of staunch hardliner Vinay Kathiar as head of the party in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.

Viewed together with Mr Advani's promotion, the editorial says the latest developments illustrate the party's "disturbing move to occupy its original plank of unabashed right-wing Hindutva."

"This is why Mr Advani's appointment should worry the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance much more than it apparently has," it says.

The Times of India is equally harsh about what the move could do to the Indian governing coalition's commitment to a common, broadly secular agenda.

"The formal appointment of Mr Advani signals at once the beginning of the end of the Vajpayee era and the return of the BJP to its original moorings," it says.

The appointment, it suggests, shatters a powerful myth of recent times, that "the BJP needs Mr Vajpayee more than the latter needs the BJP" and even more so that "Mr Vajpayee is the pivot around which the NDA coalition is built."

The paper argues that until now it was widely believed that "without Vajpayee's sobering influence the NDA would unravel", leading in turn to the collapse of the BJP-led government at the centre.

Mr Advani, according to this school of thought, with his uncompromising hawkish views was considered "unacceptable" to the NDA's secular allies.

But the editorial concludes, "in the event, the implausible has happened, without not so much as a murmur from any of the allies."

The Hindustan Times says the appointment is indicative of the BJP "preparing in all seriousness to face not only the next round of elections in several states, including Gujarat, but also the general election in 2004."

"[Since] Mr Advani has the image of a hardliner, his elevation can mean that the BJP is no longer willing to put some of the crucial issues on its agenda, including the Ayodhya temple, on the back burner."

The paper also says that in addition to reassuring the Sangh Parivar (or the hardline Hindu parent organisation of the BJP) by elevating one of its more hardline followers, Mr Advani's appointment is also likely to enable a sharing of responsibilities between the prime minister and him.

Another leading English-language daily, The Indian Express agrees with this view but says: "No Prime Minister likes to share power unless there are compelling reasons for it."

"The timing of this move would only go to confirm reports of Vajpayee's frail health, coming as it does so soon after the controversy over the Time article."

Time magazine suggested in a recent article that Mr Vajpayee enjoyed a nightly drink of whisky and frequently fell asleep at meetings.