Vajpayee completed five years as Prime Minister on March 19 and is ready for another five years. It is not easy to manage a 20-odd party coalition with different ideologies and he gets full credit for achieving this feat.

On the plus side, politically, he has resolved the Bodo issue, and held elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The government is currently negotiating with the Nagas.

On the economic side usually governments do not take hard decisions in the second half of the term but Vajpayee is a pro-reforms man taking hard decisions like FDI in media, near convertibility, and the like. Foreign exchange reserves are swelling. Inflation is well under control. Labour reforms are also on the anvil. Ambitious schemes like the infrastructure and road schemes and linking of the rivers are planned.

On the minus side, despite these grandiose projects, implementation is tardy at the ground level. This is evident from the electoral losses. It is the TINA factor, which is the main reason for his continuance. There is no one to challenge him within the BJP or NDA or in the divided opposition.

Frequent elections have made the people wary of politicians. The Congress Party, which is ruling in 16 States, has not been able to check the personal popularity of Vajpayee. While the graph of the BJP may be going down, that of Vajpayee remains the same. No mud sticks on him with the result that he is called the "Teflon PM." Congress President Sonia Gandhi seems to be the best bet for his continuance as she is not able to lead the opposition. His government fell by one vote in 1999. A weak and divided opposition is also a major factor for his success.

The Vajpayee government had seen it all—facing a super cyclone, a super earthquake, super drought, Kargil war and the Kandahar hijack in these five years. The natural calamities were colossal in extent. There was criticism about the handling of each of these. Besides, there are growing terrorist attacks including those on Parliament and the Akshardham and Raghunath temples, which raises questions about intelligence failure. The critics of Vajpayee did not spare him for releasing terrorists in exchange for the hostages in Kandahar.

Vajpayee has three constituencies. One is the international audience, second is the NDA and the third is the Sangh Parivar. How has he tackled each one of these? Vajpayee’s dream of being recognised as a world-class statesman still remains a dream. India has not provided a leadership role in any of the multilateral fora, be it in the NAM or SAARC or G15 or G 77. All of them remain dormant and divided.

On the diplomatic side, Vajpayee started with a minus point after the Pokharan blast. The international reaction was very sharp and many countries had imposed sanctions against India. Slowly, through intensive diplomatic efforts and the changing world situation, India gained acceptance as a nuclear power. In a unipolar world, although Pakistan continued to be the favourite child of the U. S. A., Washington realised the importance of engagement with New Delhi. The Clinton regime promoted high-level contacts. Then 9/11 happened. India and Pakistan both joined the U. S.-led fight against terrorism and Vajpayee used it to India’s advantage. Relationships with China, Russia, France and other countries have also improved tremendously. However, the relationships with neighbouring countries have not improved. There was a time when Vajpayee’s aides dreamed of his getting a Nobel Prize nomination for peace. Vajpayee had taken steps to break the ice with Pakistan. The Lahore bus ride and the Agra summit are examples but he could not succeed.

Today there are thousands of soldiers on an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Kashmir. During the Kargil war, it was Clinton who came to the rescue of New Delhi and made Pakistan withdraw. The relationship with Pakistan is at an all time low now. Similarly, there is this naughty issue of illegal immigrants of Bangladesh. Nepal too is not stable after the assassination of King Birendra.

The moot question is that if everything is hunky dory, why is it that the BJP and its allies have lost almost all the State elections including U. P., Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra. There is something wrong somewhere. Obviously "Atalji’s magic" did not work in any of these States including U. P.