New Delhi, March 21 :     Home minister L.K. Advani?s contradictory statements over the past 24 hours has caused some discomfiture to the BJP government. Advani did a flip-flop as he called for a formation of a European Union-like umbrella federation of Saarc nations in Mysore last evening and then hopped over to Mumbai this morning where he spoke of a two-pronged strategy to deal with the security threat posed by Pakistan. Advani?s statements come at a time when Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers have just set a two-month timeframe to flesh out the Lahore Declaration and when visa facilities are being extended. Since the Prime Minister?s bus trip to Lahore, politicians on both sides have become more cautious in their rhetoric against each other. At a public meeting in Mysore yesterday, Advani said Saarc nations could form a confederation like EU. He hastened to add that there would not be any force exerted on Saarc nations. Member-nations would have to volunteer to become a part of the union, he said. Advani was apparently thinking aloud, but most Saarc nations view the idea of a confederation with some suspicion. They are afraid of being trampled upon by India, because of its size and military might. Advani clarified that India was committed to the two-nation theory and that he was aware of the misgivings on the concept of akhand Bharat. ?Pakistan and India will remain independent nations,? he stressed. In Mumbai, however, the home minister appeared to have discarded his grandiose scheme of uniting the sub-continent and said the government had evolved a two-pronged strategy to tackle the threat posed to India?s security by its neighbours. Advani, who was addressing the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Bharatiya Sindhu Sabha, said the Centre would ?first crush militancy, violence and insurgency with an iron hand and then persuade Pakistan to adopt a friendly approach?. But Advani did not explain which aspect of the strategy was being implemented now. Already, India has made friendly overtures to Pakistan through the bus trip and easing of visa restrictions. The home minister has, however, admitted in the recent past that militancy in Kashmir has declined but not yet wholly curbed. Though Advani stopped short of saying Pakistan supported terrorism in India, he showed that he was still capable of being brashly critical of the country?s support to Kashmiri militants.