Oppn crushing the spirit of Constitution, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hit out at the Opposition for "misleading" the country and crushing "the spirit of the Constitution", even as he credited Bharatiya Janata Party workers for the unprecedented mandate in Odisha, Haryana and Maharashtra.

- Debabrata Mohanty

Addressing party workers at an event in Bhubaneswar, the PM said that the only aim of the Opposition is "to somehow capture power by misleading people". "Those who consider power as their birthright have not been in power at the Centre for the last decade," he said in an apparent dig at the Congress.

The Prime Minister said it is quite natural that there would be ideological differences among political parties on different issues, and that they have the right to express their views and resort to agitations.

"During my tenure as CM and PM, I saw different colours of politics. I admit that a constructive opposition is normal in a democracy. There can be differences of opinion on any decision," he said.