Congress Leader's 'Morality' Question To Amit Shah, His 'I Resigned' Reply

The heated face-off in the Lok Sabha between the opposition and the government over the bills to remove elected representatives arrested on serious charges and kept in custody for over 30 days also saw a short but sharp exchange between Congress MP KC Venugopal and Home Minister Amit Shah over the "morality" of the legislation.

After the bills were introduced on Wednesday, Mr Venugopal, a senior Congress leader, said, "This bill is to sabotage the federal system of the country, it is meant to sabotage the basic principles of the Constitution. Leaders of the BJP are saying that this bill is to bring morality into politics. Can I ask the Home Minister a question? When he was the home minister of Gujarat, he was arrested. Did he uphold morality at that time?"

Hitting back, Home Minister Shah said, "I want to set the record straight. Fake allegations were levelled against me, but despite that, I abided by morality and ethics and not only resigned but did not accept any constitutional post until I was cleared of all charges. They are trying to teach us morality? I had resigned. I want morality to increase. We can't be so shameless that we are charged and we continue to hold Constitutional posts. I had resigned before I was arrested."

Earlier in the day, Mr Shah had introduced three bills - the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 - which state that the Prime Minister, any Union minister, chief ministers and ministers of states and Union Territories, who are arrested and kept in custody for 30 consecutive days for for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years, will have to resign by day 31, or be automatically removed.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji had not resigned from their posts even after their arrests over serious charges. 

'Pulling The Veil'

While the government has said the bills are meant to strengthen probity in public life, the opposition has alleged they are attempts to remove opposition-led governments in states through a circuitous route.

Senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "I see it (the bills) as a completely draconian thing as it goes against everything. To say it is an anti-corruption measure is just to pull a veil across the eyes of the people."

"Tomorrow, you can put any kind of a case on a chief minister, have him arrested for 30 days without conviction, and he ceases to be a chief minister. It is absolutely anti-constitutional, undemocratic and very unfortunate," she added.

Alleging that attempts were being made to turn the country into a police state, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, "This bill is unconstitutional. Who will arrest the Prime Minister? The BJP government wants to make our country a police state through these bills. We will oppose them. The BJP is forgetting that power is not eternal." 

The bills have been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which has been asked to present its report on the first day of the next parliamentary session and Mr Shah said the opposition will get opportunities to present its objections before the panel.