Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leader Rahul Gandhi at a public meeting during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, in Ambikapur, Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme, and said that it will reinforce the power of votes over notes.
The opposition party also said that it hopes that the Modi government will stop resorting to such "mischievous ideas" in the future and listen to the Supreme Court so that "democracy, transparency and level-playing field" persist.
The Supreme Court in a landmark judgement delivered a big blow to the government and annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge welcomed the Supreme Court decision and hoped the government will stop resorting to "such mischievous ideas" in the future.
He said the Congress had called the scheme "opaque and undemocratic" when it was launched. Subsequently, in the 2019 manifesto, the Congress promised to scrap the Modi government's "dubious scheme".
"We welcome the decision of the Supreme Court today, which has struck down this 'Black Money Conversion' scheme of the Modi Government, calling it 'Unconstitutional'.
"We remember how the Modi Govt, PMO and FM bulldozed every institution - RBI, Election Commission, Parliament and Opposition to fill BJP's coffers. No wonder, 95% of the funding under this scheme was received by BJP," Kharge said.
"We hope that Modi Government will stop resorting to such mischievous ideas in future and listens to the Supreme Court, so that democracy, transparency and level-playing field persists," the Congress chief said.
Reacting to the verdict, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "Another proof of Narendra Modi's corrupt policies is in front of you. The BJP had made electoral bonds a medium for taking bribe and commission. Today a stamp has been put on this."
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The Supreme Court has held the much-touted Electoral Bonds scheme of the Modi Sarkar as violative of both laws passed by Parliament as well as the Constitution of India."
The long-awaited verdict is hugely welcome and will reinforce the power of votes over notes, he said on X.
“The Modi Sarkar has been inflicting ANYAY upon ANYAY on the Annadatas while privileging the Chandadatas,” Ramesh said.
“We also hope that the Supreme Court will take note that Election Commission has been consistently refusing to even meet political parties on the issue of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). If everything is transparent in the voting process then why this obstinacy?” he said.
Party spokesperson Pawan Khera said at a press conference here that the Congress has been fighting this battle for the last seven years both within Parliament and outside and its stand has been vindicated.
"We welcome the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," he told reporters.
"We are grateful to the Supreme Court of India. We, as a nation, stand strengthened and encouraged," Khera said and added that, "Today, we stand vindicated".
Khera charged that the electoral bonds were "a wilful tool of concealment, of absolute exoneration from political accountability".
That was their only purpose and all the intellectualisations offered at the time have failed to withstand judicial scrutiny, he noted.
"For a party which made the purging of 'Black Money' a key jumla of its electoral campaigns, it created a system that removed all accountability from the system, allowed black money a cloak to conceal itself with, while at the same time charging the citizens of this country to run it," he said.
Khera said the party looks forward to the SBI disclosing all the details of funding received by all political parties.
"With over 95 percent of all funding having flowed to just one single party through this route since it was introduced, the question that arises is; will the Modi Government comply or will it issue another ordinance to try and circumvent the directions of the Supreme Court," Khera asked.
Khera alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been "exposed" with "his corruption" coming to the fore in light of the verdict.
"This is a case of corruption by the prime minister which was attempted to be covered-up legally by bringing a money bill," the Congress leader claimed.
However, the BJP alleged that the opposition parties are politicising the issue as they do not have any alternative to Prime Minister Modi’s leadership
"Any order of the Supreme Court or its judgement has to be accepted and respected. But those political parties who are trying to politicise it , they are doing it primarily on the grounds that they have no answer or alternative to Modi ji’s leadership and the positive work done by his government where crores of people have benefitted,” BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli told PTI.
Khera also claimed that the government has a habit of taking recourse to ordinance for having its way and said that after the verdict no attempt should be made to bring back the electoral bonds through the back door.
Asked if the party would demand a probe into donations received by the BJP through the bonds, Khera said, "I think this is something so serious that heads should roll. Who is behind this scheme which covers all tracks, which ensures a totally opaque system of political funding. The accountability must be fixed. The country should know who is behind this corruption and we all know who is behind this corruption."