Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L. K. Advani on Monday said he had no objection to India inviting the Pakistan President for the World Cup semi-final cricket match between India and Pakistan on Wednesday, but added that there must be zero tolerance to terrorism.

Mr. Advani was responding to questions at a “Face-the-Press,” organised by the Mumbai Press Club. The panel consisted of N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, Kumar Ketkar of the Dainik Bhaskar group, CEO of Star India Uday Shankar, and Ajit Ranade of the Association for Democratic Reforms.

Mr. Advani said his party's view was that as far as interactions between India and Pakistan were concerned, there should be person-to-person interactions as much as possible.

“I have no objection to inviting the Pakistan President. I am happy that they have forgiven someone in prison after 27 years in response to an appeal made by the Supreme Court of India, where his parents had filed an application. A similar case has been pending, I will be happy if more people are released.”

Mr. Advani said terrorism and dialogue should be delinked. “Zero tolerance means we will be willing to have a dialogue, provided you totally dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism that you have built up. What is happening now is that India and Pakistan are playing a cricket match and inviting Mr. Zardari and Mr. Gilani for the match is engagement. Engagement does not mean that you start a formal dialogue.” Worse situation

The situation in Pakistan had become so worse, said Mr. Advani quoting the former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's interview to Time.

Asked if Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world, Mr. Musharraf had said, “I will not say [the] most dangerous, but I will say very dangerous.

” Mr. Advani said, “He was the head of Pakistan once, and he wants to return. He says Pakistan is very dangerous. If you make terrorism an instrument of State policy, it is bound to recoil on you and in Pakistan it has happened.”

On party colleague Arun Jaitley's remarks on Hindu nationalism, revealed by a WikiLeaks cable and published by The Hindu, he said he would go through the cable. “I will have to see; I saw a statement made by Jaitley that he has never used the word ‘opportunistic' in his interaction."

When Mr. Ketkar asked him why he partially trusted WikiLeaks, and did not believe that Mr. Jaitley said Hindutva was opportunistic, Mr. Advani said every cable had three parts: facts which were conveyed to the U.S.; the interpretation, and the third advice. The facts should be accepted as true at least as in the case of the cash-for-votes.