"Electoral bond was institutionalised corruption": Congress' Manish Tewari

Manish Tewari also thanked the Supreme Court for striking down the scheme.

"When the electoral bonds were introduced in 2017, we completely opposed it because there was no transparency in it. The Supreme Court's decision confirms that the electoral bond scheme was opaque. In this case, both the person, taking the money and the person giving it were not known. It has been proven by the decision of the Supreme Court that on one side go ED and CBI and on the other side come electoral bonds," he said.

"Electoral bond was the most institutionalised corruption that can be carried out in a democracy. I am thankful that the Supreme Court struck it down," he added.

Further, Manish Tewari emphasised that Rahul Gandhi is a very serious leader and the BJP targets him regularly because they are afraid of him.

"Someone has tried to understand the pain and suffering of this country by walking 3000 km. After Chandrashekhar, in 1983, Rahul Gandhi travelled on foot from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. If they target Rahul, it means they are afraid of him," Tewari said.

The Congress leader also added that the BJP will not get even a single seat in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Meanwhile, noting that he had never said that a decision taken cannot have a shortcoming, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accused the opposition parties of "spreading lies" over the electoral bonds scheme, which has been struck down by the Supreme Court, and said "everyone will regret it when there is an honest reflection".

In an interview with ANI, PM Modi said the electoral bonds scheme was aimed at curbing black money in elections and said the opposition wants to run away after making allegations.

He said of the 16 companies who gave donations when action was taken by probe agencies, only 37 per cent of the amount went to the BJP and 63 per cent to opposition parties opposed to the BJP. (ANI)