BY AYUSH ARORA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reacted to the Supreme Court’s judgment in the EVM-VVPAT issue on Friday, saying the RJD and Congress never cared about India’s Constitution. During a rally in Bihar’s Araria, PM Modi said that “booth capturing was very common” under the former’s rule. He more accused the Congress of seeking to include Bihar’s Muslims in the OBC quota.
PM Modi claimed that the Opposition was trying to get rid of EVMs.
“RJD and Congress alliance in Bihar neither cares about the constitution of India, nor about democracy. They did not let people exercise their right to vote for decades. Booth capturing was very common… They did not even let the people step out to vote…,” PM Modi said.
“Now when the poor and honest voters have the strength of EVM, they are trying all they can to get rid of the EvM… Today, the Supreme Court has given a strong verdict saying that the old system of ballot paper voting will not come back,” he added.
Pm Modi claimed that like Karnataka, the Congress wants to bring Muslims under the purview of OBC reservation.
“Congress has profoundly colluded to take away the rights of SCs, STs, and OBCs, and I say this with full responsibility. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar stated unequivocally that India cannot have religious reservations.
PM Modi said that Muslims receive the lion’s share of Karnataka’s 27 percent OBC quota.
“However, Congress is working hard to introduce religion-based reservations. It is attempting to adopt the Karnataka model of reservation across the country…They deceived the OBC group by including all Muslims from Karnataka on the OBC list, regardless of financial standing. A significant portion of the 27% allocation for the OBC has now gone to Muslims.”Congress wants to do the same in Bihar and other parts of the country,” he said.
The Supreme Court today denied seven petitions seeking to cross-verify votes cast using electronic voting machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.
The bench rejected the pleas, stating that “democracy is all about striving to build harmony and trust between all institutions.”
The Election Commission has issued a notice to BJP president JP Nadda in response to PM Modi’s remark that the Congress intends to share people’s hard-earned money to “those who have many children”. The court has instructed him to respond to the notice by April 29.