Pandemonium in LS as Shah tables 3 Bills for removal of PM, CMs, Mins held for 30 days

Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed stormy scenes and ruckus, not seen in the recent past, over the introduction of the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to remove the Prime Minister, a Central or State Minister and chief ministers if they have been kept under arrest for at least 30 consecutive days.

- VINAY KUMAR

NEW DELHI:

Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the three contentious Bills in the Lok Sabha amid massive uproar and sloganeering by the agitated Opposition members. The Bills were sent by the House to a Joint Committee of Parliament comprising 21 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha for scrutiny. The committee, whose members will soon be named, has been asked to submit its report to the House by the last day of the first week of the next session, expected in the third week of November.

As the three Bills were introduced — the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill — the Opposition was up on its feet and tore copies of the legislation amid rowdy scenes.

The Opposition has described the proposed legislation as "draconian" claiming that it would be used by the government to destabilise opposition-ruled states through arbitrary arrests of ministers and chief ministers. A brief slug-fest ensued between Congress MP KC Venugopal and Amit Shah over the "morality" of the legislation.

After the Bills were introduced, 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?"