New Delhi [India] August 21 : Strong opposition voices emerged after Union Home Minister Amit Shah tabled three Bills in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday to allow the removal of prime ministers, chief ministers and ministers held in custody for 30 days on serious criminal charges.
In Delhi, Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari sharply criticised the government, described the bill as "anti-democratic".
He further warned that the proposed bill could enable the government to jail opposition leaders on fabricated charges.
"Two times, because of their (BJP) misdeeds, the people of India gave them minority seats. They could not form the government in so many places. To come back into the majority, the BJP is bringing this black law. This is anti-democracy," he said on Thursday.
"There are sections stating that there won't be bail for 3-6 months. First, they will register a case with the help of their agencies against the Opposition. By the time he comes out of jail, he will lose everything... We will not let this draconian law come into existence," he added.
Echoing similar concerns in Bhubaneswar, Congress leader Srikant Jena said the bill was designed to destabilize opposition-led governments.
"It is purely politically motivated and to remove the minister and CMs in the opposition from the office by putting false cases. The Indian govt, because of the kind of political executive today, can impose these kinds of conditions and use police to harass them and put them in jail for 30 days and then remove them from their office. This is unconstitutional... To fight corruption, there are many ways," Tiwari said.
Meawhile, echoing similar sentiments, Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that this bill is a ploy by the BJP to target and eliminate opposition parties.
"If any minister has a case against them and gets arrested and remains in custody for 30 days, then their position is certain to be lost. The BJP is bringing this law so that it can target its opposition. In a way, it can be seen that they are bringing this bill to eliminate the opposition party," Ghulam Ahmad Mir told ANI.
Mir cited examples of the BJP's misuse of power, including the cases against Jharkhand's Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Delhi's CM Arvind Kejriwal, where charges were filed without substantial evidence.
Mir alleged that the BJP uses central agencies like the police, ED, and CBI to target opposition leaders, undermining the democratic process. "In the last 10 years, we have seen that if they want to target someone, they slap any case on them because the police, ED, CBI are under their control, like what happened in Jharkhand where a case was filed against the Chief Minister, and he was put in jail for 5 months," Mir added further.
Elaborating on the details of the court investigation, the Congress leader said, " Later, when the court investigated, they said there was no basis or evidence for it, and the case should not have been filed at all, so they had to face criticism. In Delhi, you put Kejriwal and his minister in jail. After about 4 years, the court gave a clean chit to their first minister. But they remained in jail, and no hearing took place..."
"A Minister, who for any period of 30 consecutive days during holding the office as such, is arrested and detained in custody, on allegation of committing an offence under any law for the time being in force, which is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or more, shall be removed from his office by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister to be tendered by the 31st day after being taken in such custody," the Constitution Amendment bill states.
The bill seeks to amend Articles 75, 164, and 239AA, introducing a legal mechanism that mandates the removal of ministers in custody for offences punishable by five years or more.
As per the provisions, the President will remove the Prime Minister, the Governor will remove Chief Ministers, and the Lieutenant-Governor will remove Chief Ministers of Union Territories.
If no resignation or advice for removal is tendered by the 31st day, the office will automatically fall vacant on the 32nd day. Reappointment is permitted upon release from custody.