Welcoming the Supreme Court’s verdict on electoral bonds, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said the apex court has struck down the “black money conversion” scheme of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

In his first reaction to the SC’s judgment on pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme, Kharge said, “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.”

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He claimed that on the day of the launching of the electoral bonds scheme, the Congress party had called it opaque and undemocratic and added that subsequently in its 2019 (Lok Sabha elections) manifesto  it promised to scrap this “dubious” scheme.

Attacking the ruling dispensation, Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, further said, “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 per cent of the funding under this scheme was received by BJP.”

“We hope that the Modi govt will stop resorting to such mischievous ideas in future and listen to the Supreme Court, so that democracy, transparency and level-playing field persists,” he wrote on X.

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress general secretary and in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh in a post on X wrote, “The Supreme Court has held the much-touted electoral bonds scheme of the Modi government 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.

“We also hope that the Supreme Court will take note that the 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.

Notably, the Election Commission had dismissed his concern over the VVPAT and reiterated its full faith in the use of the EVM in elections.

Meanwhile, Pawan Khera, chairman of the media and publicity department of Congress, at a press conference at the party headquarters here said, “The Supreme Court has held that the much-publicised electoral bonds scheme was violative of both laws passed by Parliament as well as the Constitution of India. The Indian National Congress was the very first political party, which on the day the electoral bonds scheme was announced in 2017, immediately condemned the same as opaque and undemocratic.”

“We have since consistently called out the scheme both within parliament and outside. Our 2019 Lok Sabha Manifesto clearly stated that we intend to scrap this opaque scheme. Today, we stand vindicated. This scheme was nothing, but a ‘black money recycling scheme’ purported by the BJP to fill its coffers,” he said.

Asserting that 95 per cent of the electoral bonds money was received by BJP, he said, “This means BJP got Rs 5,200 crore, through electoral bonds. How can the 95 per cent of the proceeds of electoral bonds  go to one political party, which is the ruling party.  We have been demanding that this scheme be very transparent, let the people of India know, because it’s their right to know, how much has been given by whom to which political party ? We are the only party demanding this transparency.”

“We again reiterate our demand that the SBI should make every single penny which came to any political party , public and also place it before the Election Commission,” Khera said.