- Earlier this week, the centre brought bills to sack ministers jailed for 30 days on serious criminal charges
- Amit Shah cited Arvind Kejriwal running the Delhi government from jail as reason for bringing in the new bills
- PM Modi supported the bills, contrasting his government with previous regimes accused of corruption
Amit Shah maintained that it had not happened in the 75 years since the nation won freedom. He then cited the example of Arvind Kejriwal, the former Delhi Chief Minister who ran the government from Tihar jail, to drive home the point of bringing in the bills to sack jailed ministers.
Mr Shah also underlined the need for "constitutional morality", something he said should be practised by both the opposition and the ruling party.
The government introduced three bills in Parliament on Wednesday for the removal of 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 in a row.
"Do the people of the country want any Chief Minister to stay in jail and run the government? What kind of discussion is this? I don't understand. This is a question of morality. Now they are asking why it was not included in the Constitution earlier. When the Constitution was drafted, it was not anticipated that people who had been to jail would continue to hold elected office," he said, speaking at Manorama News Conclave in Kerala.
The Home Minister was referring to the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal on alleged corruption charges in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case and his refusal to resign after being jailed.
"Now, there was an incident where a Chief Minister ran the government from jail. So, should the Constitution be amended or not? There was also a BJP government in power, but we never faced such a situation," Mr Shah said, indicating that if Mr Kejriwal had resigned following his arrest, this new bill would not have been introduced.
"If Kejriwal had resigned, he would not have changed it even today.
But I believe that both the parties are responsible for maintaining the level of morality in democracy," he added further.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Bihar today, also championed the new bill, which was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee amid Opposition uproar.
"We have seen a regrettable situation in which people in seats of power have been running governments from jail, signing files from behind bars, tearing to shreds constitutional propriety," said PM Modi, hinting at Arvind Kejriwal's case.
Proudly claiming that there was "no taint of corruption" on his 11-year-old government, the Prime Minister drew a contrast with the previous Congress regimes, which allegedly saw many scams coming to the fore, and the RJD, the corruption of which, while in power in Bihar, "is known even to the man on the street".
"So, we decided to bring in a law that provides for dismissing a corrupt chief minister, or even the Prime Minister, if he or she spends 30 days in jail. A lowly clerk, if he is jailed for a short period, is placed under suspension. But when we brought in a stringent law, the RJD, the Congress and the Left were livid. They are angry because they are scared of facing punishment for their own sins," PM Modi alleged.
The country is being "pushed back to medieval times" when the king would get anyone he did not like arrested, alleged Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, as he criticised the bill.
Mr Gandhi alleged that over the last 11 years "we have witnessed the blatant misuse of parliamentary majority to arm the autonomous agencies like ED, I-T, and CBI with draconian powers to target opposition leaders".
Speaking at the function in the central hall of Samvidhan Sadan (old Parliament), Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the Constitutional Amendment Bill that undermines the core values of parliamentary democracy and federalism is being introduced in subterfuge at the fag end of the session, leaving no scope for meaningful debate or scrutiny.
He said over the last 11 years, "we have witnessed the blatant misuse of parliamentary majority to arm the autonomous agencies like ED, I-T, and CBI with draconian powers to target opposition leaders".
"Now, these new bills are set to become instruments in the hands of the ruling party to further undermine and destabilise democratically elected governments in the states. In Parliament, we have seen a growing trend of stifling opposition voices. We are repeatedly denied the opportunity to raise matters of vital public concern in the House," Mr Kharge noted.
