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New Delhi: The Opposition was up in arms in Parliament on Wednesday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah tabled a proposal to remove the Prime Minister, chief ministers and ministers from their posts if they are arrested for over 30 days on charges that have jail terms of at least five years.

Following a big uproar in Lok Sabha and protests by most Opposition parties, the government was forced to refer the three relevant bills — The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, which covers the PM and states, and Delhi NCT; The Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill; and The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill — to a joint Parliamentary committee (JPC).

Weighed in on the bills aimed to remove a sitting Prime Minister, chief ministers and ministers in states and UTs, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the government’s move shows that India was going back to medieval times.

“We are going back to medieval times when the king could just remove anybody at will. There’s no concept of what an elected person is. He doesn’t like your face, so he tells ED (Enforcement Directorate) to put a case, and then a democratically elected person is wiped out within 30 days,” the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha told the media this evening.

In a show of unity, Opposition MPs tore up copies of the bills and threw the papers towards Shah, while some members marched towards the well of the House and raised slogans.

The Opposition’s objection is that the proposed legislations speak of action on mere allegations, not on proven guilt.

IMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Congress’ Manish Tewari and K C Venugopal were among the vocal leaders.

“I condemn it as a step towards something that is more than a super-Emergency, a step to end the democratic era of India forever. This draconian step comes as a death knell for democracy and federalism in India,” Mamata posted on X.

Amit Shah vs Venugopal

According to Venugopal, this bill is meant to ‘sabotage’ the basic principles of the Constitution.

“BJP members 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?”

An agitated Shah retorted sharply, saying he had resigned as Gujarat minister before he was arrested.

“There were false allegations against me. I had resigned on moral grounds till I was under trial. I did not hold a single constitutional post till I was cleared of all the charges by the court,” Shah said.

Owaisi argued that the bills violate the principle of separation of powers — the Parliament, the executive (or government), and judiciary.

“It gives executive agencies a free run to become judge and executioner based on flimsy allegations and suspicions… This government is hell-bent on creating a police state. This will be a death knell unleashed on elected governments,” Owaisi said, comparing the proposed bills to the Gestapo, the secret state police of Hitler’s Germany.

Congress MP Tewari called the bills “squarely destructive” of the basic structure of the Constitution.

“This bill opens the door for political misuse by instrumentalities of the state whose arbitrary conduct has been repeatedly frowned upon by the Supreme Court,” Tewari said.