On Board the Bharat Uday Yatra Bus: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Apr 7, 2004) claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brand of secularism was closer to Mahatma Gandhi's concept and accused adversaries of using "hindutva" bogey to attack the saffron party.

"BJP's secularism is closer to Mahatma Gandhi's concept. The Supreme Court has approved 'hindutva' to be a way of life," he said in an exclusive interview.

"In fact, 'hindutva' has been used more by our opponents to attack us even though the term is synonymous with Indian-ness," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Advani asserted that BJP's concept of secularism is akin to the Father of the Nation, where he thought all religions were true and the State should be secular to protect all subjects.

"Contrarily, Pandit Nehru considered all religions to be essentially untrue and the State should therefore be secular in order to avoid conflicts among religions," he said.

On his drawing parallels between Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani said in terms of acceptability by the people, nobody comes close to Vajpayee except the first premier of the country.

On his praising Congress leaders like Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Maulana Azad besides Gandhi, Advani said, "They are all icons.

"There are sections in the society who worship leaders including Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose and we should not hurt their feelings and sentiments," he said.

On whether BJP had transformed from a cadre-based party to a mass-based party, he said, "We are a cadre-based mass party. We have a strong core of cadres as well as a wider vote base."

Ruling out any contradiction between National Democratic Alliance's (NDA's) election manifesto and BJP Vision Document, Advani said, "There are no gaps. We have an NDA Government in which BJP is a dominant constituent.

"BJP has a responsibility not only to run the Government efficiently at present but also to keep thinking of the country's future and develop long-term perspectives," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said his greatest personal achievement was "being at peace with myself". In the presence of his wife Kamala, the Deputy Prime Minister credited her, saying he has been able to realise his dreams mainly because of her.