In an interview to The Indian Express, BJP prime-ministerial candidate L K Advani refused to commit on the question of having Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the centrestage in New Delhi. He insisted it was not a question, but a “suggestion for action”.

•Recently we saw serial blasts in Ahmedabad and bomb recoveries in Surat. Do you think there has been an intelligence failure?

Intelligence failure does happen in various cases in different governments. But what is alarming is the failure on the terrorism front as such. Can someone explain why Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan or Gujarat cannot have anti-terror laws when it is in place in Maharashtra? This shows the complete lack of will to deal firmly with terrorism.

The consequence of such laxity on the part of the UPA Government has put the internal security of the country at stake.

Other countries, where human rights are supreme, have special stringent anti-terror laws. Even the US anti-terror law is more stringent than our POTA. The first and the foremost need of the hour is that the authorities should convey the message of zero tolerance to the perpetrators of terror. The UPA Government has failed abysmally in this regard.

•You recently had a joint press conference with Narendra Modi in Delhi. What is the political implication of this?

We have already made a statement. The reason for calling him was that a terror attack had taken place in Gujarat and the Gujarat Government had attained remarkable success in preliminary investigations.

... contd.