The scrapping of the electoral bonds – in a landmark decision by the Supreme Court in February – is a decision “everyone will regret when there is honest reflection” and has “completely pushed the country towards black money”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told news agency

The Prime Minister said the electoral bonds scheme launched by his government was meant to fight the use of ‘black money’, referring to unaccounted cash or funds from criminal activities, in election campaigns, and that he had “never claimed this was an absolute way” to achieve that goal.

Mr Modi also attacked the opposition for spreading “lies” about the bonds and said his government had introduced the scheme to cut down on ‘black money’ during elections. He countered criticism – that his Bharatiya Janata Party was the largest beneficiary, to the tune of thousands of crores.

“There has been a discussion in our country for a long time… that black money allows for dangerous games to be played during elections. That money is spent in elections… no one denies. My party also spends… all parties and all candidates spend, and this money is taken from the people. I wanted to try something… how can our elections be free from this black money? How can there be transparency for people giving donations? This was a pure thought in my mind,” the PM said.