New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday sought to downplay the Supreme Court verdict on electoral bonds, saying every decision of the apex court should be respected and accused the opposition parties of politicising the issue.
BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said the Opposition is politicising the issue as it does not have any alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and the positive work done by his government.
The BJP’s reaction came after the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement annulled the electoral bonds scheme ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
“We practice in the courts and on a daily basis, the cases are won and lost,” Kohli told PTI when asked for his comment.
Any order of the Supreme Court or its judgement has to be accepted and respected, he added.
“But those political parties who are trying to politicise it are doing it primarily on the ground 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,” he charged.
Kohli said India has now become the fifth largest economy in the world from the 10th largest economy and it is on its way to become the third largest economy under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership.
“These political parties find themselves in a position that an alliance they were trying to craft is almost dying itself or its dying out or collapsing even before it could stand on its legs,” the BJP spokesperson said.
“So, their reason for politicising it is very clear,” he added.
Kohli said the government had brought the electoral bond scheme to address the issue of use of black money in the elections.
“The largest perspective is that this has been a journey for several decades and a concern has been how to prevent black money or slush money getting into the electoral process,” the BJP leader said.
“Keeping concerns regarding the identities of the contributors in the mind, a (electoral bond) scheme came. The Supreme Court has held that this scheme in this format could not have been there.Therefore, it passed a set of directions,” he said.
The apex court has “basically” said today that in electoral bonds the information should come out, Kohli said, adding, “any order of the Supreme Court or its judgement has to be accepted”.
The top court said the government’s electoral bond scheme violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
The apex court ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose to the Election Commission the names of the contributors to the six-year-old scheme.
The opposition parties welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict and attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the court has struck down a ‘Black Money Conversion’ scheme of the Modi government and hoped it will stop resorting to “such mischievous ideas” in future as well.
