'There could be no India without secularism'

Congress president Sonia Gandhi Monday said there could be no India without secularism and it was not only an ideal but a compelling necessity.

Speaking at an international conference organised by the Congress to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, she said Nehru was one of the towering figures of the 20th century.

"He was a man of many parts, a man of action, a man of letters, a sympathist of the East and the West and an ardent nationalist," she said.

The Congress president added that he interpreted India to the world and vice versa.

"There could be no Indianness, no India without secularism. Secularism was and remains more than an ideal. It is a compelling necessity in a country as diverse as India," she said.