Anantnag (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], August 21 (ANI): Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Wednesday expressed strong opposition to the proposed bill aimed at removing the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and ministers facing serious criminal charges.
According to Mir, this bill is a ploy by the BJP to target and eliminate opposition parties. If a minister is arrested and remains in custody for 30 days, they will lose their position, which Mir said is a strategy to target opposition leaders.
“If any minister has a case against them and gets arrested and remains in custody for 30 days, then their position is certain to be lost. The BJP is bringing this law so that it can target its opposition. In a way, it can be seen that they are bringing this bill to eliminate the opposition party,” Ghulam Ahmad Mir told ANI.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three bills in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, including the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, which proposes automatic removal of elected officials – Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and Union Ministers – if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on serious criminal charges.
Mir cited examples of the BJP’s misuse of power, including the cases against Jharkhand’s Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Delhi’s CM Arvind Kejriwal, where charges were filed without substantial evidence.
Mir alleged that the BJP uses central agencies like the police, ED, and CBI to target opposition leaders, undermining the democratic process.
“In the last 10 years, we have seen that if they want to target someone, they slap any case on them because the police, ED, CBI are under their control, like what happened in Jharkhand where a case was filed against the Chief Minister, and he was put in jail for 5 months,” Mir added further.
Elaborating on the details of the court investigation, the Congress leader said, ” Later, when the court investigated, they said there was no basis or evidence for it, and the case should not have been filed at all, so they had to face criticism. In Delhi, you put Kejriwal and his minister in jail. After about 4 years, the court gave a clean chit to their first minister. But they remained in jail, and no hearing took place…”
“A Minister, who for any period of 30 consecutive days during holding the office as such, is arrested and detained in custody, on allegation of committing an offence under any law for the time being in force, which is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or more, shall be removed from his office by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister to be tendered by the 31st day after being taken in such custody,” the Constitution Amendment bill states.
The bill seeks to amend Articles 75, 164, and 239AA, introducing a legal mechanism that mandates the removal of ministers in custody for offences punishable by five years or more.
As per the provisions, the President will remove the Prime Minister, the Governor will remove Chief Ministers, and the Lieutenant-Governor will remove Chief Ministers of Union Territories.
If no resignation or advice for removal is tendered by the 31st day, the office will automatically fall vacant on the 32nd day. Reappointment is permitted upon release from custody.
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha on Wednesday also opposed the bill and described it as a “tactic” that wherever the BJP can’t win elections, it will not indulge in horse-trading, but destabilise and topple that government through the bill.
“The difference between the accused and the convicted has blurred. The Supreme Court had commented about ED that they are becoming a part of the political game. They will slap PMLA cases against anyone and put them behind bars. This is a tactic. Wherever you can’t win elections, you need not indulge in horse-trading. Just destabilise them and topple them. I think the Home Minister wants to target a few people from his own party as well,” he said. (ANI)
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