BHUBANESWAR: Breaking his silence on the intolerance debate, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said his party is totally against intolerance.

“Our party (BJD) is a secular party and against intolerance in any form,” said Naveen following a meeting of the party MPs ahead of the winter session of the Parliament.

The BJD leaders said the party, as a constructive opposition, would deficiently participate in the debate of intolerance “Our stand is very clear on the issue. If there would be any debate on intolerance, the BJD would definitely participate. The BJD, being a regional party, would vociferously make our points against intolerance of any kind,” BJD parliamentary party leader in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab told TOI.

CPI (M) chief Sitaram Yechury has already submitted a notice for debate on the intolerance.

He said the regional party would focus more on issues related to interest of the state. “The Centre has unilaterally reduced fund on a number of central schemes. We would forcefully raise these issues,” Mahtab added.

On party’s stand on Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the regional party said the discussion is still continuing since there was no clarity on certain provisions of the bill. “If the Centre able to build a consensus among different parties about the GST bill, we would support it,” said BJD MP Baijayant Panda.