New Delhi, Dec. 26: L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh today recalled Atal Bihari Vajpayee's outreach to Pakistan as both - veteran and serving minister - came up with a nuanced endorsement of Narendra Modi's "drop-by" diplomacy.

The BJP hailed the Prime Minister's Friday stopover in Lahore, saying it was a "transformative moment" in the subcontinent.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, not one of Modi's greatest admirers to start with, appeared more in sync with the party, describing the Lahore visit as a "magnanimous gesture", the responses reflecting the shades of opinion - from tempered support to gushing praise.

Advani, who has never concealed his disapproval of the Prime Minister's functioning and politics, made it a point to underplay the centrality of Modi's personality in the Lahore visit and projected it as a foreign policy continuum.

"The efforts that Atal Bihari Vajpayee began, that effort has been taken forward by the government of the day and its leaders," Advani, who was in Kutch to attend an event, was quoted by ANI News as telling the media when asked for his reaction to Modi's Lahore stopover.

"Among the leaders is Modiji and others, all of whom have contributed in the constructive progress we have made towards normalising India-Pakistan relations," Advani, who spoke in Hindi, added.

Home minister Rajnath was quoted by ANI as saying in Lucknow: "Nobody can reject the reality that in independent India's politics, it was Vajpayeeji who enhanced India's prestige in the eyes of the world then and now it is Modiji. I believe that the Prime Minister is the harbinger of innovative diplomacy. I think no one in the world has ever seen diplomacy like this."

The BJP called the visit a "transformative moment" in the subcontinent and praised Modi for the "vision, skill and imagination" he has shown in pursuing peace in a region with a history of fraught ties.

"Search for peace does not mean we have already found it," Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson M.J. Akbar said while briefing the media today. "But in the process, particularly in a region with as many complex problems as ours, the pursuit of peace, always a fragile commodity, requires the kind of courage shown in Lahore."

He said it required "two authors reading from the same page" to write a "new chapter".

Akbar also commended Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his "vision and leadership in this pursuit of peace".

In a tweet, chief minister Chouhan said: "Stop over at Lahore by PM @narendramodi to personally extend birthday greetings to his counterpart is an exceptional magnanimous gesture."

Underlying the approvals and the praise was the fear that a cross-border strike or a terror attack would provoke the Modi sceptics. Sources also recalled that Vajpayee and Advani, who had both made well-publicised journeys to Pakistan - Vajpayee as Prime Minister and Advani as Lok Sabha Opposition leader - had ended up being singed.

Vajpayee's historic "Lahore bus yatra" in 1999 was followed by the Kargil conflict.

Advani's certificate of appreciation for Muhammad Ali Jinnah at Karachi cost him his career in the BJP. He stepped down as party chief at the party's national executive a few months later. "We hope nothing of this sort impacts Modiji," a source said.

Yesterday, if the BJP's tutored spokespersons projected Modi's Lahore touchdown as a "spontaneous" gesture in keeping with his "out-of-the-box" diplomatic approach, today sources sought to place it in a wider perspective.

A source close to Modi claimed he had "thought things through" and that his Lahore visit, far from being impulsive, was in sync with his "vision" for bringing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) on a par with the Asean and the European Union.

"There's an old Sufi saying. What do you do to come out of a vicious circle? The conventional answer is you would cut it. The Sufi saying is you redraw and enlarge the circumference. So, Saarc is the much larger circle within which the PM is trying to untangle the India-Pakistan tangle. From day one, Saarc has been his preoccupation."

Asked about the RSS's potential to dampen the BJP's Pakistan overtures, the source insisted the parivar was "on board".

"(BJP general secretary) Ram Madhav gave a positive statement. He still says he is proud to be from the Sangh, so he is an authentic voice of the Sangh. Besides, let's remember that the Sangh accepted the BJP's alliance with the People's Democratic Party (in Jammu and Kashmir)," the source said.