New Delhi: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani has said the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) image had been damaged to some extent because of "some associates" of his party.

In a 50-minute programme produced by noted journalist Mark Tully for the current affairs programme of BBC's Channel Four, Advani said the image of BJP was "based upon certain associates of ours with whom we do not agree and who perhaps are today therefore more critical of (Atal Behari) Vajpayee and me then anyone else."

"May be, to some extent," was the reply of Advani when he was asked whether they were damaging the image of the party.

In the programme "Hindu Nation", Tully has travelled to various parts of the country and highlighted the growing role of organisations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal in inculcating the "hindutva" mantra among children and youths.

During the programme, in his brief interview with Advani, he asked the Deputy Prime Minister whether his party had come to power because of reaction against secularism.

"No, it is on a wave of reaction against pseudo secularism and not against secularism. Mahatma Gandhi's secularism stemmed from the fact that he was a man of religion…today somehow, the mere fact that a person is proud of being Hindu is anti-secularism. That is what I regard as pseudo secularism," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

"I have no hesitation in affirming that whether it is Gandhi or Arvind, their concept of Hinduism was encompassing and ennobling and it is that which lent strength to democracy and secularism," Advani said.

PTI