India's Home Minister Amit Shah reacts to SC's order on electoral bonds, says 'fully respect but...'

India's Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking about the Supreme Court's order on electoral bonds, said that he fully respects the order butadded that the purpose of introducing the scheme was to put an end to the flow of black money in politics and added that it should have been improved and not scrapped.

"Electoral bonds were introduced to end the influence of black money in Indian politics. Everyone has to accept the decision given by the Supreme Court. I fully respect the Supreme Court decision. But I feel that instead of completely scrapping the electoral bonds, it should have been improved," Shah said while speaking at the India Today Conclave.

Shah also touched upon the issue of ''One Nation, One Election" saying that it is a concept which has been brought by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP and when implementedwill ensure the country's faster development and put an end to recurring expenditure.

Amit Shah accuses Congress of mismanaging political donations

Speaking about the Congress, Shah said that the opposition party leaders have been acceptingcashdonations in the name of the party but pocket almost the entire amount.

"The Congress party has run this system for years," the home minister alleged.

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Shah stated that there have been claims of the electoral bonds benefiting the BJP whereas the truth is that the system has also been beneficial for other parties too.

"I want to make my stance clear about it. Out of the total Rs 200,000 million electoral bonds, the BJP has got approximately Rs 60,000 million. Where did the rest of the bonds go? TMC has got Rs 16,000 million, Congress got Rs 14,000 million, BRS got Rs 12,000 million, BJD got Rs 7500 million and DMK got Rs 6390 million," Shah said.

"We have got Rs 60,000 million despite having 303 MPs and the rest got Rs 140,000 million against 242 MPs. What is the hue and cry about? I can say that once the accounts are settled they will not be able to face questions from you all," the home minister added.

'One Nation, One Election' proposed to stop repeated expenditure: Shah

Speaking about the 'One Nation, One Election' proposal, Shah said that a large amount of money is spent on conducting elections since the polls take place many times across the nation.

He said that because of the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct, the government's decision-making gets adversely affected because of which development work is stalled.

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"The idea of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP behind one nation, one election is that elections are held again and again in this country and the people are busy in elections and this leads to repeated expenditure," said the home minister.

"Due to the model code of conduct, many development works come to a halt. One nation, one election is a solution for this," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)