It is time the prime minister went back to work. Nobody grudges him his little holiday in Nainital or his gloomy poetic ruminations about being stabbed in the back by those he trusted, but if he does not quickly get back to governing India we could find ourselves ruled by Hindu fanatics instead of the NDA Government. There are disturbing signs that this is already beginning to happen. Now that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has finished with Gujarat its leaders appear to be turning their attention to Kashmir. So last week in an interview to The Indian Express, we had Pravin Togadia accusing Farooq Abdullah of conspiring with "jehadi terrorists" to force Hindus to flee Jammu. Togadia also ordered the prime minister to "confine himself to politics" and not to interfere in Hinduism. He then described the recent pogroms against Muslims in Gujarat as "an upsurge, a rebellion". Who is this man? And why can't anybody put a lid on him?

Since the violence in Gujarat and the showdown in Ayodhya, Hindu fanatics have been on such a roll that they are virtually dictating the country's political agenda. So embroiled are we in analysing the finer points of Hindutva that we appear to have forgotten our troops are still on full deployment on the border. Forgotten that Pakistan continues to ignore our list of 20 most-wanted terrorists, that acts of terrorism continue in Kashmir and that the economy is not in good shape. All we seem to talk about these days is how Hindus and Muslims should behave towards each other, with mainly Hindu fanatics doing the talking. Muslims are warned that their safety depends on Hindu "goodwill" and are ordered to make changes in their religion to eliminate such concepts as kafir. While all this is going on, our prime minister and home minister, both proud members of the RSS, remain silent. It is as if the reverses in the recent assembly elections have caused their leadership qualities to atrophy. And while they lick their wounds and write sad poems the RSS has succeeded in creating the impression that the only reason for the electoral reverses was because the BJP had abandoned its special (Hindu) identity.

This is rubbish. If the BJP lost in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Manipur and most recently in Delhi's municipal elections, it is mainly because it has failed the governance test. Voters these days are impatient for change and A.B. Vajpayee's Government has not succeeded in projecting itself as one that can bring it about. Because the prime minister is surrounded by pre-television era politicians, this vital tool of modern politics has been used so little that the Government's achievements remain unpublicised. This Government has done better than others in public-sector privatisation but keeps quiet about it. There are strenuous efforts being made to build roads-not expressways which is what we really need, but roads nevertheless-and this remains a closely guarded secret. There is a sincere attempt at bringing about reforms in our bankrupt power sector but again nobody talks about it because the Prime Minister's Office has not yet noticed TV's power or that there are now nearly 100 Indian TV channels in various languages to choose from.

Meanwhile, Hindutva's medieval leaders have fully understood the power of television and there is almost not a thing they say or do these days that isn't in front of cameras. Since they are linked in the public mind with the BJP they succeed in projecting the party's uglier aspects. We saw not just the dead bodies and charred homes in Gujarat but the faces of the killers and the arsonists, who had no hesitation in being identified. We also saw the chief minister smiling happily when he came to meet the prime minister in Delhi last week as if he were the hero of Gujarat and not its leading villain.

Hindutva, far from being an asset, is destroying the BJP and only if the prime minister decides to make his government start working can he could restore the party's sullied image. Instead of just dreaming about the economy growing at 9 per cent he needs to take measures that would make this happen.

It can only happen if Vajpayee decides to make a clear career choice between being India's prime minister and a frustrated poet. Oddly enough, it his poetic side that his publicists have gone out of their way to highlight, even on television. So, if you watch MTV these days you might come upon our prime minister gazing mournfully at sunsets and horizons while Shah Rukh Khan lip-synchs his way through one of his poems. There would be nothing wrong with this if we could also see Vajpayee as leader. The prime minister not only needs to take firm charge but needs to be seen to be doing this. Most importantly he needs to take control of the political agenda so that we can go back to constructive things like making the economy grow faster and evolving a policy for Kashmir instead of the destructive, hate-filled nonsense we have been so absorbed in of late.