Bill against jailed ministers not driven by politics: Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday said the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, that seeks to remove the Prime Minister, chief ministers or ministers facing corruption or serious offence charges if they remain in detention for 30 consecutive days, is not driven by political vendetta and the Opposition needs to explain why they are against an attempt to ensure morality in public life.

- HT Correspondent

“I want to ask the opposition should any PM, CM or any minister be in jail and run the government from there... is it befitting democracy?” he said in an interview to news agency ANI.

Targeting AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Shah said a “new trend has emerged” where leaders do not step down on moral grounds pending inquiry but choose to run governments from jail. His reference was to Kejriwal’s arrest in the now-scrapped 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case. The former chief minister spent over five months in jail.

"It does not befit our democracy if government secretaries or chief secretaries have to go to jail to seek orders from the Prime Minister, chief minister, or ministers. In this bill, Modi ji has ensured that the PM is included along with CMs and ministers, while Indira Gandhi, through the 39th Constitutional Amendment, had kept the Prime Minister outside the ambit of law," Shah said, according to a statement.

Reacting to the home minister's jibe, Kejriwal in a post on 'X' said, "Should a person who includes criminals of serious crimes in his party, gets all their cases dismissed, and makes them ministers, deputy CMs, or CMs, also be required to resign from his position? How many years of imprisonment should such a person face?" The AAP leader also said he ran the government from jail for 160 days when he was jailed "under a political conspiracy." In a wide-ranging interview, Shah also addressed questions over the abrupt exit of former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, which has caused much speculation, and on disruptions in Parliament. The just-ended monsoon session saw the Lok Sabha's productivity slipped to 30.6%. It worked for 37 hours and 7 minutes and wasted 84 hours and 05 minutes, while Upper House had 38.88% productivity as it worked for only 41 hours and 15 minutes, according to parliamentary data.