The Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a massive showdown between the treasury bench and the opposition after Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced new bills that provide for the removal of the prime
minister or chief ministers arrested on serious criminal charges.
MPs, including Asasduddin Owaisi, Manish Tewari, NK Premchandran, Dharmendra Yadav and KC Venugopal, opposed the bill, calling it “anti-constitutional”. The three bills have been sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for further deliberation.
Amid massive protests by the opposition, Congress MP KC Venugopal asked Shah whether he resigned on moral grounds when he was the home minister of Gujarat. “BJP people are saying this is to bring morality in politics. Can ask a question to the home minister when he was the home minister of Gujarat, he had been arrested, whether he took the morality to resign,” the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Alappuzha said.
Shah objected strongly to Venugopal and said he resigned as the Gujarat home minister on moral grounds and did not take any constitutional post until he was cleared of all charges by the courts.
“False allegations were levelled against me, and I resigned on moral grounds, and I did not take any constitutional posts until I was cleared of all charges by the courts,” Shah said.
Govt Hell-Bent On Creating Police State: Oppn
Opposition MPs tore copies of three bills and threw paper bits towards him in the Lok Sabha. Speaker Om Birla later adjourned the House amid uproar.
Opposing the bills, Owaisi said they 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,” he added.
Echoing a similar view, Congress MP Manish Tewari said these bills are 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.
Three bills— are the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025; the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025– were introduced in Lok Sabha that seeks to remove the prime minister, a Union minister, a chief minister or a minister of a state or Union Territory when arrested or detained on serious criminal charges for 30 days.
