To PM Modi's 'EVM-VVPAT Order Tight Slap' Remark, Congress's 'Spanking' Reminder By SC

to pm modi’s ‘evm-vvpat order tight slap’ remark, congress’s ‘spanking’ reminder by supreme court

New Delhi: In its first reaction after the Supreme Court rejected pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes using EVMs with a VVPAT, the Congress party on Friday said it was not a party, directly or indirectly, to the petitions in the case. The party, however, asserted that it will continue with its political campaign on greater use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail to increase public trust in the electoral process.

The Supreme Court on Friday junked pleas on the use of EVM with VVPAT slips and said “blindly distrusting” any aspect of the system can breed unwarranted scepticism.

Maintaining that “democracy is all about striving to build harmony and trust between all institutions”, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta dismissed all the pleas in the matter, including those seeking to go back to ballot papers in elections.

The order was a “tight slap” on parties like Congress, and its INDI Alliance parties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said praising the Supreme Court order.

“When the Congress, the RJD and other INDI Alliance parties were in power, the poor, backwards, and Dalits used to be deprived of their votes through booth capture. With the introduction of Electronic Voting Machines, they are no longer able to play their old game. Hence, they committed the sin of creating distrust against EVMs,” PM Modi said during a rally in Araria.

Responding to PM Modi’s assertion, Congress party general secretary Jairam Ramesh reminded the “spanking” by the top court in the electoral bonds case.

“The Prime Minister says that the Supreme Court verdict on VVPATs is a tight slap to the Opposition and that we should apologise to the nation,”Ramesh posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“Remember that 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,” he added.

“It is indeed the PM who should apologise to the nation for amassing ₹8200 crore over the last five years through his well-documented Chaar Raaste of collecting Chanda – 1. Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo 2. ⁠Theka Lo, Ghoos do 3. ⁠Hafta Vasooli 4. ⁠Farzi Companies,” he said.

Ramesh also alleged that there is no ‘Modi wave’ in the country, but only poison spread by him.