The penny seems to have finally dropped. Try as they may, Ajit Jogi, Kamal Nath, Ambika Soni et al - the Congress' TV-friendly faces - can't change the mind of the Indian middle class. That it has decided to back the bjp and nothing will change its mind has been obvious for some years now. To tinker with the discredited dialectics of critics, the middle class is reactionary, conservative... and proud of it! Congress functionaries now admit that appeals to 'be fair' won't work when it comes to examining the bjp critically. As the editor of The Indian Express put it, '(They) detest the thought that minorities and illiterate lower-caste types could elect someone they didn't endorse.'