Some scribes saw tears rolling down the cheeks of Vajpayee while entering his office chamber in the Parliament House after the Lok Sabha returned the confidence motion moved by him. Some of his colleagues including his second-in-command Mr. Advani consoled him. But the people outside the Parliament House had no sense of regret at the collapse of Vajpayee government. Rather, the people felt free. Free from a rule indulging in bellicosity and chauvinism.

Should there have been any sense of regret really? Be it the offensive against the minorities, the organised attacks on the Christian community and their place of worship, or be it the jingoism betrayed through nuclear tests, every governmental action resulted in its social and political polarization at home and abroad. The secular fabric of the country's governance was torn apart. The country's image abroad was blackened, thanks to diplomatic ineptitude. The policy initiatives in the economic arena were only seen in government's desperation to please the dictates of World Bank - IMF at the behest of the Clinton Administration.

No, nobody to be blamed for the fall of Vajpayee government. It is the Sangh Parivar's hidden agenda, which Vajpayee government had to carry on, is responsible for its fall. Vajpayee could not distance himself or his government from the organisational compulsions of implementing the Parivar's Hidutva agenda, nor could escape the Parivar's imprisoning grasp.

The seed of its defeat in the numbers game lay in the very matrix of the coalition Vajpayee had headed. Only binding thread among the coalition partners was their opportunist interest in sharing power. There was little of principle in forming and running the coalition. To begin with it was unprincipled and it ended too in the same unprincipled way. With the withdrawal of ADMK from the coalition it left no stone unturned to coax and cajole some other smaller parties to fill the gap in the numbers game, but in vain. So a government born in opportunism, lasted for thirteen months in opportunism and finally ended in opportunism.