Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Supreme Court's rejection of pleas seeking cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was a "tight slap to the Opposition."

The Prime Minister also said the Opposition should apologise to the nation.

PM Modi's remark came while he was addressing an election rally in Bihar's Araria.

"Today is an auspicious day for our democracy. The Supreme Court has given a tight slap on the face of the Opposition who used to cry for EVMs," the Prime Minister said.

"They should apologise to the nation," he added.

"Where the world is praising our democracy and the electoral process, the Opposition is defaming the same for their personal benefits," PM Modi said.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court on Friday 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.

Maintaining that "democracy is all about striving to build harmony and trust between all institutions", a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered two concurring verdicts and dismissed all the pleas in the matter, including those seeking to go back to ballot papers in elections.

At the rally, the Prime Minister also alleged the Congress party conspired to take away the rights of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

"The Congress has deeply conspired to take away the rights of SCs, STs, and OBCs, and I'm saying this with utmost responsibility," he said.

"Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar has said in very clear words, that India cannot have religion-based reservations, but Congress is trying its best to implement religion-based reservations. It is trying to implement the Karnataka model of reservation in the country. They have betrayed the OBC community and included all Muslims of Karnataka in the OBC list, irrespective of their financial status," he added.

He also slammed the RJD-Congress alliance and said they "do not care about India's Constitution."

"They did not let people exercise their right to vote for decades. They did not even let the people step out to vote. Now, when the poor and honest voters have the strength of EVM, they are trying all they can to get rid of EVM," the Prime Minister said.

Source: India Today