Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 20: The Lok Sabha plunged into chaos on Wednesday and witnessed a massive showdown between the treasury bench and the opposition after the Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three new contentious bills to amend the constitution to provide for the removal of the prime minister or chief ministers and other ministers arrested on serious criminal charges for 30 days.
Opposition MPs, including Asasduddin Owaisi, Manish Tewari, NK Premchandran, Dharmendra Yadav and KC Venugopal, opposed the bill, calling it “anti-constitutional.” Shah, however, after stiff opposition accepted the demand that the three bills be sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for further deliberations.
The opposition tore up the three contentious bills – The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025; The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 – and also trooped into the well of the Lower House and resorted to sloganeering, even as Mr Shah rejected criticism that the Bills were brought in haste.
He later assured that the bills would be sent to the Joint Committee of Parliament, where members of both Houses, including the Opposition, would get an opportunity to give their suggestions. “We cannot be so shameless that we continue to occupy constitutional positions while facing serious charges,” the Union Minister said.
Pieces of paper were allegedly thrown at Mr Shah while he was speaking in the Lower House. Several Opposition members vociferously opposed the Bills, saying that it would sabotage the country’s federal structure. However, the Bills were introduced and the Lower House passed a resolution to refer the Bills to Joint Committee of Parliament.
The Bills provide legal framework for removal of the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and Ministers in States and Union Territories who are “arrested and detained in custody on account of serious criminal charges” for a continuous period of 30 days for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years. Such persons will have to resign by day 31, or be automatically removed.
The Joint Committee of Parliament, to which the three Bills were referred to will contain 21 members from the Rajya Sabha and 10 from the Lok Sabha, as appointed by the Chairman. The Committee will submit their report by the last day of the first week of the next session.
The heated face-off in the Lok Sabha between the opposition and the government over the bills also saw a short but sharp exchange between Congress MP KC Venugopal and Mr Amit Shah over the “morality” of the legislation. After the bills were introduced on Wednesday, Mr Venugopal, a senior Congress leader, said, “This bill is to sabotage the federal system of the country, it is meant to sabotage the basic principles of the Constitution. Leaders of the BJP are saying that this bill is to bring morality into politics. Can I ask the Home Minister a question? When he was the home minister of Gujarat, he was arrested. Did he uphold morality at that time?”
Hitting back, Home Minister Shah said, “I want to set the record straight. Fake allegations were levelled against me, but despite that, I abided by morality and ethics and not only resigned but did not accept any constitutional post until I was cleared of all charges. They are trying to teach us morality? I had resigned. I want morality to increase. We can’t be so shameless that we are charged and we continue to hold Constitutional posts. I had resigned before I was arrested.” Incidentally, the former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji had not resigned from their posts even after their arrests over serious charges.
While the government has said the bills were meant to strengthen probity in public life, the opposition has alleged they were attempts to remove opposition-led governments in states through a circuitous route.
Senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “I see it (the bills) as a completely draconian thing as it goes against everything. To say it is an anti-corruption measure is just to pull a veil across the eyes of the people.” “Tomorrow, you can put any kind of a case on a chief minister, have him arrested for 30 days without conviction, and he ceases to be a chief minister. It is absolutely anti-constitutional, undemocratic and very unfortunate,” she added.
Alleging that attempts were being made to turn the country into a police state, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, “This bill is unconstitutional. Who will arrest the Prime Minister? The bills violate the principle of separation of powers and undermine the right of the people to elect a government. “It gives executive agencies a free run to become judge and executioner based on flimsy allegations and suspicions…This government is hell-bent on creating a Police State. This will be a death nail unleashed on the elected government. India’s Constitution is being amended to turn this country into a Police State. The BJP is forgetting that power is not eternal,” he added.
Echoing a similar view, Congress MP Manish Tewari said these bills were squarely destructive of the basic structure of the Constitution. “This (these) Bill opens the door for political misuse by instrumentalities of the State whose arbitrary conduct has been repeatedly frowned upon by the Supreme Court. It throws all existing Constitutional safeguards to the winds,” he added.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee said the government was “solely interested in amassing power, wealth and control without any accountability. We strongly condemn this authoritarian attitude and oppose the introduction of this draconian constitutional amendment bill,” he said on X.
Among the BJP MPs who supported the Bill is Manan Kumar Mishra, who accused the Opposition of trying to divert public attention. “The government is bringing an important bill in which those who have been in jail for more than 30 days will not be allowed to hold ministerial positions. There can be no work more important than this, but the opposition wants to obstruct Parliament,” he said.