On Narendra Modi’s ‘tight slap’ remark, Congress reminds ‘spanking’ by Supreme Court

The Congress party on Friday said it was not a party, directly or indirectly, to the petition on VVPATs rejected by the Supreme Court, but 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 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.

“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,” the PM alleged in Araria.

“But today, the highest court of the land delivered a verdict … which comes as a tight slap to these parties,” he added.

Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh reminded the “spanking” by the Supreme 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.

“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.”

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