New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS): Slamming the government for an advertisement that depicted an image of the preamble of the Constitution without the words 'secular' and 'socialist', the Congress Wednesday called it an insult of the ethos of the statute.

"The advertisement issued by Narendra Modi led BJP government, from which the two fundamental words of the preamble of the Constitution - secularism and socialism - were deleted, reflects an affront to the Constitution and sacrilegious insult to its ethos," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Wednesday.

"Congress, as also every citizen of the country, which has faith in the principle ethos of our Constitution as a governing framework for India of the past, present and future and on behalf of every such citizen of India, we demand an immediate apology from the government of India on the issue," the Congress spokesperson said.

"We also call upon the prime minister to clarify his stand on the his definition and understanding of the words secularism and socialism as also the path that has government proposes to take on these two important fundamentals ingrained in the letter and spirit of the Constitution," he added.