Senior home ministry officials, while swearing by "the best home minister we have worked under in recent memory," do admit these incidents have queered the pitch. And most seem agreed that Advani is reacting like he is, at least in part, because he is a prisoner of his own hardline image. "This is the man, after all, who through his years in Opposition was at his most strident on Kashmir and accused the government of the day of lacking the political will to combat militancy. Now that he is home minister, as a man of integrity, he has to say he will step down if the killings do not stop," says a bureaucrat who works with Advani. "By his own logic, Advaniji should either concede that when he accused others of lacking the will he was just doing his duty as an Opposition leader, or admit that he too is lacking in will," says Pilot, accusing the government of "failing miserably" to contain militancy.