New Delhi: Charging Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani with trying to "mislead" the nation on the concept of Mahatma Gandhi's "Ram Rajya" and wrongly project Hindutva as Indian culture, Congress today (April 1, 2004) said it was an "insult" to the true culture of what Indians were proud of.

"Advani's statement on Ram Rajya and Hindutva at Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi, is irresponsible and is a deliberate attempt to mislead the people," party spokesman Ananad Sharma told reporters.

Sharma said Advani had stated at Porbandar that even Gandhiji had talked about creation of "Ram Rajya" and that Indian culture and secularism came from faith in "Hindutva".

Gandhiji's concept of "Ram Rajya" was not "sectarian and divisive" as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was portraying, he said, recalling that the Father of the Nation had made a half-a-dozen statements in which he clarified that he had not referred to a single religion in his "Ram Rajya".

The concept of "Hindutva", Sharma said, was evolved by Veer Savarkar to capture power.

Reacting to the RSS' criticism of Congress for questioning the role of Swayamsevaks during the freedom struggle, Sharma said he would like to reiterate that the RSS did not participate in the country's freedom struggle and in fact opposed it.

"This is a black spot which the RSS cannot wipe out," he said, challenging the organisation to name a single individual who participated in the freedom struggle.