A bill to eject senior members of the government - from the Prime Minister down - jailed (but not necessarily after a trial) for 30 days on 'serious criminal charges' has led to the opposition accusing the BJP of conspiring to illegally remove non-allied governments it could not defeat in elections.
Opposition MPs have called the bill "draconian" and "unconstitutional", and warned voters the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to turn the country into a "police state... a dictatorship".
The opposition has argued the BJP - frequently accused of destabilising rivals' governments by poaching MLAs and eating into Assembly majorities, or using federal investigative agencies to intimidate them into jumping camps - is trying to make such tactics legal and constitutional.
"I see it as a completely draconian thing... to call it an 'anti-corruption measure' is to pull a veil across the eyes of the people. Tomorrow, you can file any case against a chief minister, have him/her arrested for 30 days without conviction... and he ceases to be a chief minister? It is absolutely anti-constitutional and undemocratic," the Congress' Priyanka Gandhi Vadra raged.
Another Congress leader, Abhishek Singhvi, offered similarly scathing criticism.
"The best way to destabilise the opposition is to unleash biased central agencies to arrest opposition chief minsiters and then, despite being unable to defeat them electorally, remove them by arbitrary arrests," he said, "And no ruling party chief minister will ever be touched!"
Opposition leaders pointed to the case of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was arrested on corruption charges linked to an alleged liquor excise policy scam.
The Aam Aadmi Party boss - who led his outfit to successive wins over the BJP in Delhi elections - was arrested and jailed for over five months, without a trial, before the Supreme Court granted him bail.
If the proposed bill had been in effect then, he would have been sacked on the 31st day after his arrest on March 21, 2024. The BJP had then put pressure on him to resign but he stood his ground, poin'ting out he had not faced a trial, much less been convicted. He eventually resigned on September 17.
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A similar issue erupted in Tamil Nadu after the ruling DMK's V Senthil Balaji was arrested on money laundering charges. Chief Minister MK Stalin initially retained him as a minister without a portfolio, sparking a battle with Governor RN Ravi and hearings in the Supreme Court. He too eventually quit.
Multiple opposition leaders made the same point.
The Revolutionary Socialist Party's NK Premachandran said, "This is with an ulterior motive... to destabilise non-BJP ruled state governments. We know the Enforcement Directorate and other central agencies (target) non-BJP governments. This cannot be accepted. This will be opposed."
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was more forceful in his condemnation. He called the bill "unconstitutional" and said, "The BJP wants to make our country a police state through these bills but we will oppose them. The BJP is forgetting that power is not eternal."
"A step is being taken to move towards dictatorship in the country... India is on the verge of becoming Pakistan and Bangladesh, where opposition leaders are either in jail or abroad," the Rashtriya Janata Dal's Sudhakar Singh declared.
The BJP, meanwhile, has said the proposed law is meant to combat corruption in high office, and to hold those accused of malpractice and fraud to account. It has also said the bill tightens legal frameworks when dealing with politicians invovled in criminal cases.
The party's Karnataka MLA, Arvind Bellad, said, "This is a welcome move... in the past chief ministers have tried to rule the government despite being in jail and assume power as soon as they come out..."
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At present, the Representation of People's Act does have a provision to disqualify MLAs or MPs if they are convicted of an offence that carries a sentence of at least two years.
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