Power-watching is the favourite indoor sport for many in the nation's capital. In our case it's a professional necessity. Like bird-watching, it too requires patience, with long periods of time spent waiting to sight the first flutter in a bush.

When Union Home Minister L.K. Advani was appointed deputy prime minister on June 29, caution was the best response. There is no clear-cut role for a deputy prime minister in the Constitution. It was tempting to club his appointment and the lacklustre cabinet reshuffle that followed as cosmetic rather than real change. In fact, a party member described it as "a de facto situation made de jure".

A week has elapsed and there is a definite sense only now of a shift having taken place in the functioning of the Government. By no means has Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee retired but it would seem that more day-to-day political decisions are being referred to Mr Advani. Advani has always enjoyed a special status within the BJP. Now he has almost acquired the role of a CEO to Vajpayee's chairman of the board.

A power shift of this nature is of tremendous interest especially since Advani evokes extreme responses. There are those who swear by him and there are others for whom he is the face of hardline Hindutva and the Rath Yatra. We decided to find out which of these Advanis will now prevail in Government and in which direction he intends to steer the NDA.

We sent Editor Prabhu Chawla, Managing Editor Swapan Dasgupta and Associate Editor Rajeev Deshpande to interact with Advani: they spent a relaxed 90 minutes discussing a range of subjects in order to gauge the change in the new deputy prime minister. Says Dasgupta, "Earlier, asked an embarrassing question, he would look down and wring his hands. Now he looks you straight in the eye and is ready with an answer."

At a time when the NDA struggles to deal with its mid-term blues, Advani's appointment could be the BJP's last hope to infuse some dynamism in the functioning of the Government.

(Aroon Purie)