Much before today's statement on the Babri Demolition which shows an obvious attempt to dilute his hardliner image, he had opposed a mandatory Vande Mataram in the schools of UP, dubbed the Saraswati Vandana controversy as ``needless'', and favoured the tour of the Pakistani cricket team to India, Mumbai included. He has been tough on the hoodlums who destroyed the cinema halls screening Deepa Mehta's Fire.

His statement in Parliament earlier in the week on the plan of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal to liberate a Sufi shrine near Chikmagalur underscored the point that ``nothing should be done to disturb the secular character of this religious shrine which is part of our rich secular heritage.''

Advani'sthrust was different from the note struck by his party. BJP leader and spokesperson Venkaiah Naidu said that while the Muslims believed it was their shrine, the Hindus thought otherwise.

For someone who has hardsold Hindutva for many years, the different notes Advani is striking stem from an acknowledgement of coalition imperatives and the possibility of the country heading towards bipolar coalition arrangements. While some in the BJP advocate going back to Hindutva after the drubbing the party has received in three states, many others feel that the party has to throw its net wider in the months to come.

It is no secret that Vajpayee is acceptable to the BJP's allies but many of them have reservations about Advani. Many regional parties have to contend with minorities as their constituents and have problems with a hardline Advani.

There was a time before 1990 when Advani enjoyed a more moderate image. He was more known for taking up liberal issues like an assault on the freedom of the press and theindependence of the judiciary. The Rath Yatra changed that and identified him totally with Ayodhya. The demolition of the Babri Masjid made him a persona non grata among Muslims and liberal Hindus who had till then believed that nothing would happen to the mosque as long as Advani and Vajpayee were leading the BJP.

Advani himself disclaims any change in him: ``Basically I've always been this. I don't remember a single speech I made during the Rath Yatra for which anyone can call me hawkish. I may be hawkish only in the sense of not being soft towards militancy. But on Hindu-Muslim issues and issues of communal harmony, I have never been hawkish.''

He even struck a personal note to prove that he has not been anti-Minorities. He recalled to The Indian Express how he had insisted on attending the wedding of his niece to a Muslim in the face of hostility by many people in the party who had questioned why he went to the wedding held in Mumbai in January 1993 -- soon after the riots.

Besidesattempting to acquire a moderate face, Advani is also trying to position himself as the bridge between the streams of thought represented by Murli Manohar Joshi and Vajpayee. In the past too, Advani's rise in the party has been linked to his ability to synthesise the conflicting pulls within the BJP.

hen the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill was considered by the Union Cabinet recently, Advani did not speak a word. Joshi opposed it, Yashwant Sinha and Sikander Bakht made a persuasive case for 26 per cent foreign equity and 14 per cent NRI participation, and Ananth Kumar favoured a wider consultation before taking a view on the subject.

Those close to Vajpayee question why Advani did not express his reservations in the Cabinet meeting. They do not believe that the present ruckus in the party, with the IRA becoming a casualty in the crossfire, could take place without Advani's approval, tacit or otherwise. But on the face of it, Advani has chosen to distance himself from the current tug of war. It isparty chief Khushabhau Thakre who has disowned the government's policies and accused it of not consulting the party, and Swadeshi Jagran Manch leader Dattopant Thengdi who has dubbed the opening up of the insurance sector to foreign participation as ``anti-national.'' When asked why he had gone along with the decision on the IRA, revising his earlier position, Advani told The Indian Express that the Cabinet had approved what the Group of Ministers had recommended on the Insurance sector.