Los Angeles: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on June 12 paid tributes to Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel describing them as great leaders who contributed immensely to giving Indian democracy the vibrancy and vigour that it has acquired at present.

He said this at the World Affairs Council when a member of the audience compared him to the two Indian stalwarts, adding Advani was these days appearing more like Nehru than Patel.

"Pandit Nehru contributed greatly to giving Indian democracy the vibrancy and vigour that it acquired later on. Had Sardar Patel not been there, the kind of integration that took place and the kind of unity that came about after 1947 would not have been there," he told the audience that included academicians, students and foreign diplomats, including Turkish and Pakistani diplomats.

The Deputy Prime Minister paid glowing tributes to the Congress leader when asked if Indian Constitution was secular.

"I regard it as a great tribute to the wisdom of the Congress leadership of that time, which included Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel, that despite the fact that partition took place on the basis of religion, despite the fact that one part of the country chose to become theocratic, India rejected theocracy and framed a secular constitution."

PTI