Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L.K. Advani Monday remained unfazed about his remarks on Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah that have triggered protests from Hindu hardliners and said there could be a debate on the issue.

"I went to Jinnah's mausoleum, and over there I just referred to his address to the Pakistan constituent assembly Aug 11, 1947 only to reflect the point that Jinnah also had secular approach, without special reference to any text," Advani told reporters at Indira Gandhi International Airport here on arrival from Pakistan.

"I heard there was a lot of controversy over it. I have no objections to a debate (on the issue). I want such debates to take place," he said.

Advani described his visit as "an unforgettable week in my life".

He said the Ramakrishna Mission's Swami Ranganathananda, who used to be in Karachi, had turned his attention to the new angle in Jinnah's speech.

"When I met him last year in Kolkata, he asked if I had read Jinnah's speech. I said yes. The he asked whether I had noticed that Jinnah advocated a secular and non-theoretic concept and had said there should not be any distinction between the Hindus and Muslims," Advani said, adding that he had read the speech all over again.

"It was natural to recollect what I learnt from it."

During his visit to the mausoleum Saturday, Advani had said that Jinnah's address to the assembly was a "classic, forceful espousal of a secular state in which while every citizen would be free to pursue his own religion, the state should make no distinction between one citizen and another on grounds of faith".

Hindu hardliners, especially the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have taken strong exception against the reported comments that are being seen as lauding Jinnah.

Both the organisations have demanded the resignation of Advani for disassociating himself from their concept of 'Akanda Bharat' (Undivided India) as he had said that the emergence of both India and Pakistan as separate sovereign nations was an "unalterable reality of history".

Advani, known for his earlier hardline stance on Pakistan, had left for Islamabad May 30 with his family, on what he said would be a trip down memory lane.

Advani was born in Karachi 78 years ago in then undivided India.

The BJP leader said that the trip, during which he visited Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, resulted in taking the peace process between the two countries forward and making years of strife and tension a thing of the past.

"Everyone there (in Pakistan) said your government took the initiative to start the peace process between the two countries. We should take this process forward. I agreed. The point of my trip was to stress on this," he said at the airport where BJP leaders had reached to welcome him.

"The sum and substance of the meetings with these leaders was that the normalisation process undertaken by the two countries should continue. I agreed with them," he said.

"Whatever differences there may be between the government and the opposition, what's best for the people of India and Pakistan is that the years of strife and tension be made a chapter of the past."

"The purpose of visit was to carry on the process started by the NDA (BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) government and I am very satisfied," he said, adding that the people of Pakistan appreciated that the new Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was forwarding the process.

Advani described his visit as a "warm feeling of sentimentalism". "It was an unforgettable week in my life," he said.

Advani also visited his native place and his alma mater, St. Patrick's School, in Karachi. He held talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and several leaders.

Advani, his wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law, were welcomed here by BJP vice presidents M. Venkaiah Naidu, Mukthar Abbas Naqvi, Rajnath Singh, Bihar unit president Sushil Kumar Modi, former minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Delhi BJP leaders.

BJP activists waved party flags and raised slogans greeting him for "carrying the message of peace and harmony" to Pakistan.

RSS and VHP leaders did not turn up, but the Hindu Jagaran Manch put some banners reading, "Jinnah samarthak, Pakistan premi Advani, vapas jao" (Jinnah's supporter, lover of Pakistan, Advani go back).