‘Tight’ to ‘Tighter’ Slap

A day after the Supreme Court rejected pleas seeking directions to tally all VVPAT slips with votes cast through EVMs, the Congress said it was not a party to the petition. Responding to Narendra Modi's remark that the verdict was a "tight slap" on the Opposition, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh reminded the Prime Minister of the "spanking" by the Supreme Court in the electoral bonds case.

In a post on X, Ramesh said, "The Indian National Congress was not a party, directly or indirectly, to the petition on VVPATs which has been rejected by the Supreme Court today."

Reacting to PM Modi's "tight slap" remark, the Congress leader said, "A few weeks ago the Supreme Court had given the PM a tighter slap - in fact, a spanking - by declaring the corruption-ridden electoral bonds scheme not just illegal but also unconstitutional."

Ramesh also said the Prime Minister should apologize to the nation for amassing Rs 8,200 crore over the last five years through four primary channels of corruption - "Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo; â Theka Lo, Ghoos do; â Hafta Vasooli, and â Farzi Companies".

Ramesh had made a similar allegation earlier as well while flagging a media report that claimed the BJP received 75 percent of the Rs 582 crore that was donated by 33 loss-making firms through electoral bonds.

In February, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous donations to political parties, calling it "unconstitutional".

On Friday, the Congress, however, said it would vouch for greater use of VVPATs to increase public trust in elections.

"We have taken note of the verdict of the two-judge bench and our political campaign on the greater use of VVPATs to increase public trust in the electoral process will continue," Ramesh tweeted.

Apart from rejecting the pleas on VVPATs, the Supreme Court also dismissed all petitions seeking to go back to ballot papers in elections.