Vajpayee had this remarkable ability to usurp entire credit for the various notable achievements of his government while his spinmasters conveniently scapegoated others for the glaring acts of omission and commission. For instance , in the popular narrative, the shameful surrender at Kandahar after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight came to be identified with Advani, though it was well known that the latter fiercely opposed the release of the militants, which was the hijackers’ demand. Vajpayee enjoyed a great press thanks to his PMO’s self-serving embrace of Delhi media establishmentarians and he did not nothing to challenge the charade enacted by the friendly section of his media machinery—good Vajpayee vs bad BJP