New Delhi: The Opposition parties Wednesday alleged that the Modi government is attempting to turn India into a “dictatorship” with the introduction of three Bills that seek to provide for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers arrested on serious charges, and vowed to oppose it “tooth and nail”.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Bills have been brought to elevate the “declining” moral standards and maintain integrity in politics. He hit back at the Opposition parties, accusing them of protesting the move to remain outside the ambit of the law, running governments from jail and not relinquishing their attachment to power.
Shah Wednesday moved the three Bills in the Lok Sabha for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers arrested on serious criminal charges for 30 days, drawing fierce protests from the Opposition. It was referred to a joint committee of Parliament for scrutiny.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said the country is being pushed back to medieval times when the king would get anyone he did not like arrested, as he criticised the new Bills seeking to remove the prime minister, chief ministers or ministers for serious offences.
“There is no concept of what an elected person is. He doesn’t like your face, so he tells the ED to file a case, and then the democratically elected person is wiped out within 30 days. This is new,” the Congress leader said at a function to felicitate the Opposition’s vice presidential candidate B Sudershan Reddy in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan (old Parliament).
At the function, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of introducing the Bills in “subterfuge” at the fag end of Parliament’s Monsoon session, leaving no scope for a “meaningful debate or scrutiny”. He said the Bills, if passed, will undermine the core values of parliamentary democracy and federalism.
“Over the last 11 years, we have witnessed the blatant misuse of parliamentary majority to arm the autonomous agencies like the ED, I-T and CBI with draconian powers to target Opposition leaders,” the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned the constitutional amendment Bill pertaining to the removal of a prime minister, CMs and ministers after being arrested for criminal charges, alleging that it will “end” the democratic era in India forever.
In a post on X, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief also said that the amendment Bill is a step “more than a super-Emergency” and will “finish” independence of the country’s judiciary.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said in a post on X, “This is how DICTATORSHIPS begin: Steal votes, Silence rivals and Crush States.
“The Union BJP government has decided to defile the Constitution and its democratic foundations by turning India into a dictatorship under the Prime Minister,” the DMK supremo said.
This is a “sinister attempt” to intimidate regional parties in the NDA, “whose leaders are chief ministers or ministers in various States”, he claimed.
Stalin further said the first move of “any emerging dictator” is to give himself the power to arrest and remove rivals from office. “That is exactly what this Bill seeks to do,” he said, and called upon all the democratic forces to unite against “this attempt to turn India into a dictatorship”.
Hitting back, Shah said the Bill has been brought to elevate the “declining moral standards and maintain integrity in politics” in view of public resentment towards the “menace” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s commitment to “restoring moral standards in politics”.
“On one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced a constitutional amendment to bring himself within the ambit of the law, and on the other hand, the entire Opposition, led by the Congress, has opposed it to remain outside the law’s ambit, run governments from jail and not relinquish their attachment to power,” he said in a series of posts on X.
“Now, the people of the country will have to decide whether it is appropriate for a minister, chief minister or the prime minister to run the government while in jail,” the Union home minister said.
The Left parties said the Bills are a direct “assault” on democracy and the federal framework, and vowed to oppose it “tooth and nail”.
“Modi Govt’s 3 bills to oust PM, CMs, Ministers after 30 days in custody expose its neo-fascist characteristics,” CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby said on X, flaying the move.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan slammed the Opposition parties and said those opposing the three Bills want to bring anarchy and show that they are above the law.
“This law is very necessary under today’s circumstances,” he told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
There have been some instances in recent times when some people want to run the government and their ministries from jail, Pradhan said, and demanded that the Opposition parties “clarify whether they support that nobody should resign even if they are behind bars”.
BJP MP and former Union minister Anurag Thakur said the way the Opposition members protested in the House showed that “they stand by corruption and the corrupt, and they are ready to go to any extent to save the corrupt”.
“The question arises as to what the Opposition is protesting against. Is it morality or corruption?” he told reporters.
“The fight is clear. The Opposition stands with corruption and the corrupt. The BJP-NDA wants to make politics corruption-free.
PTI
