Angry Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha threw torn copies of the three contentious Bills at Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, August 20, as he tabled the proposal to remove a jailed prime minister and chief ministers.
Videos have gone viral on social media, showing Shah reading the Bill, with pieces of paper falling on him.
The Centre introduced three Bills: The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, The Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization (Amendment) Bill and The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, in Parliament.
The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill proposes the removal of a 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 in a row.
If any one of them is arrested and detained in custody for consecutive 30 days for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years, they will lose their job on the 31st day.
Death knell: Asaduddin Owaisi
Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi vehemently opposed the three Bills, calling them draconian, anti-constitutional and a direct blow to India’s democracy.
“This government is bent on creating a police state. It violates the right to choose a government and is a death knell for any elected representative. The Constitution of India is being amended to turn this country into a police state,” he said in Lok Sabha.
He argued that the amendments violated constitutional safeguards, including protection against double punishment. “A minister could face removal merely on allegation and then again upon conviction, punished twice for the same offence,” he said, citing Article 20.
On the Constitution Amendment Bill, he warned that the move threatened federalism, a core element of the Constitution’s basic structure. “These bills erode judicial safeguards, weaken parliamentary democracy, and undermine India’s federal framework by vesting excessive powers in unelected officials at the expense of elected representatives,” Owaisi said.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, likened the proposed bills to “going back to medieval times.”
“There’s no concept of what an elected person is. If he doesn’t like your face, he asks the ED to file a case, and within 30 days a democratically elected person is wiped out,” he said in the Lok Sabha.
“It as a completely draconian thing. It goes against everything and to couch it as a measure which is taken as anti-corruption is just to pull the wool over the eyes of the people. Because, what it basically allows a government to do is — You don’t even have to be convicted,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said.
TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the new bills were an attempt by the Modi government to retain power without accountability.
He called it nothing more than a “gimmick” as the Centre was trying to divert attention from its “failure to push through” the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which has now “met roadblocks at the Supreme Court.”
Left parties have also called the new bills as a direct “assault” on democracy and the federal framework, and vowed to oppose it “tooth and nail.”
CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby said on X that “Modi Govt’s 3 bills to oust PM, CMs, Ministers after 30 days in custody expose its neo-fascist characteristics. This direct assault on our democracy will be opposed by CPIM tooth and nail. We urge all democratic forces to unite against this draconian move”.
“These bills, cloaked as tackling crime in high office, reveal their true intent given the RSS-controlled Modi govt’s history of undermining elected state govts. With SIR, they mark a blatant move to subvert our democracy. All democratic forces must resist,” he said on X.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas predicted the bills would certainly be misused. “In an era marked by vindictive politics, where central agencies are deployed against opposition leaders, the provisions will be misused for ulterior motives. Its reference to “constitutional morality” contradicts its spirit, as it deviates from the established principle that disqualification and punishment should be tied to convictions by courts, not merely charges or arrests,” his X post read.
(The copy has been updated with the latest statements from Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders on the three contentious bills introduced in Lok Sabha)
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