April 23, 2002    Search the Internet E-Mail this column to a
friend Print this page Best Printed on HP Recent Columns Do we
really need      the ISI? Brave New World Nayak vs Khalnayak Few
steps backwards The treacherous road      to peace  Saisuresh
Sivaswamy  Vajpayee has lost his moral right  If the 60 days
since the Godhra outrage and its 'effect' aka the slaughter of
innocents, have proved anything, it is that the Atal Bihari
Vajpayee government, despite its majority in Parliament, has
lost its moral authority to rule India.  Winning the numbers
game in Parliament is not always tantamount to the right to
govern. In the rarest of rare cases, the converse sometimes
becomes true. Like in 1996, when Vajpayee's 13-day government
resigned ahead of the vote of confidence. What he lacked in
numbers then, he made up in stature.  But mostly, parliamentary
numbers don't matter a whit if the public trust has been
squandered. Rajiv 'Mr Clean' Gandhi, despite his cheerleading
hordes in the Lok Sabha, lost his moral s