Bills for removal of PM, CMs aimed at preventing Nitish from making yet another volte face: Kanhaiya

Lakhisarai (Bihar), Aug 21 (PTI) Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday claimed that the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill was aimed at preventing BJP allies like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar from “making yet another volte face”.

The young leader made the remark at a press conference in Lakhisarai district, shortly before Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi joined the state-wide ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, which resumed after a day-long break.

“The BJP wants to keep under pressure not just its opponents, but also allies like Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu. The BJP is sending a signal to Nitish ji that if you try to do yet another about turn, we will frame you in some case, keep you behind bars for 30 days and get you sacked. Thereafter, all the MLAs in your JD(U) will be bought over and made to sing ‘Narendra Modi zindabad’,” he said.

The former JNU students’ union president added: “The BJP has tried the new trick realising that its past strategy of unleashing ED and CBI on opposition parties, destabilising governments of other parties through ‘Operation Lotus’ and even manipulating electoral rolls with the help of a pliant Election Commission, have not yielded the desired result.” Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday moved the Bill in the Lok Sabha, which seeks to allow for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers, and other ministers if they are arrested on serious charges for a period of 30 days.

The Bill faced fierce protests from Opposition members, who described it as being "against the spirit of the Constitution and federalism".

Kumar asserted that “arrogance of power” has made the party blind to the fact that the Bill, if it becomes a law, would hit the BJP hard once it is out of power.

Mocking the EC for claiming that the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, underway in Bihar, was necessary for weeding out discrepancies in voters’ list, Kumar said, “Can a cat be trusted with guarding a bowl of milk? It is the same EC which, in cahoots with the ruling dispensation, allowed all sorts of irregularities in Maharashtra.” He claimed that the ruling dispensation is “all set for a thrashing in Bihar where it is going to experience the shivers of a cold wave in the sweltering weather of ‘Bhado’ (a month in the Hindu calendar). The reason being strong roots of democracy in Bihar, dating back to the era of the Buddha and the land’s history of mass movements, including the Quit India Movement of 1942”.

Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had flagged off the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ at Sasaram on Sunday in the presence of leaders like AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. PTI NAC RBT