Accusing the BJP of never having participated in the freedom struggle, the CPI(M) said attempts were being made to ``distort history'' and to sully the image of the Communist party.

The CPI(M) was reacting to statements made by the Home Minister in Bangalore yesterday questioning the stand of the Communists towards the 1942 movement and to the Indo-China conflict in 1962.

At a public function in Bangalore Advani alleged that the Communists had ``always played a dubious role'' since Independence and went so far as to accuse the Communists of ``dividing the nation in 1947''.

What has irked the CPI(M) was Advani's accusation that the then undivided CPI has collaborated with the British during the freedom struggle and had supported theChinese aggression against India in 1962.

Wanting to set the record straight, the CPI(M) said during the independence movement and later during the 1962 Indo-China conflict, the Communists were the first to raise the issue of complete independence in 1922 and had made tremendous sacrifices for that cause. Now the BJP was trying to ``tarnish the image of the Communist party which has produced martyrs and cadres who dedicated their lives to the cause of freedom.''