PM Modi hails Supreme Court’s dismissal of VVPAT pleas, says “tight slap to Opposition”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision of rejecting petitions seeking cross-verification of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) adding that it is a "tight slap to the Opposition."

Addressing an election rally in Bihar’s Araria, the prime minister attacked the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alliance, PM Modi also said that the Opposition should apologise to the nation.

He called the judgment “victory for democracy”.

The prime minister said, “Today is an auspicious day for our democracy. The Supreme Court has given a tight slap on the face of the Opposition who used to cry for EVMs.”

“Where the world is praising our democracy and the electoral process, the Opposition is defaming the same for their personal benefits,” he further added.

At the rally, PM Modi also alleged the Congress party of conspiring to take away the rights of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), adding, “The Congress has deeply conspired to take away the rights of SCs, STs, and OBCs, and I'm saying this with utmost responsibility.”

“Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar has said in very clear words, that India cannot have religion-based reservations, but Congress is trying its best to implement religion-based reservations. It is trying to implement the Karnataka model of reservation in the country. They have betrayed the OBC community and included all Muslims of Karnataka in the OBC list, irrespective of their financial status,” he added.

Earlier on April 26, the Supreme Court rejected pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a VVPAT 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 delivered two concurring verdicts and dismissed all the pleas in the matter, including those seeking to go back to ballot papers in elections.