'Modi govt most constitutionally immoral in India's history': Sibal slams new bills on removal of PM, CM, ministers

New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI) The Modi government is "weaponising" laws to target the opposition and is the most "constitutionally immoral" in India's history, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal alleged on Tuesday as he slammed the bills proposing the removal of prime minister, chief ministers and ministers if they are under arrest for 30 consecutive days on serious charges.

Sibal also claimed that the bills had been brought as the BJP knows that the "tide has turned" in Bihar and it wants to divert the attention of the people to other issues.

"You can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool all the people all the time," Sibal said at a press conference here.

Referring to Shah's recent reported remarks on the bill, Sibal said the minister talked of constitutional morality but that "constitutional morality has nothing to do with their own morality" and has everything to do with the morality of the opposition.

Sibal said no minister in the BJP governments at the Centre and in states had been arrested, while probe agencies had targeted opposition leaders one after another.

The Independent Rajya Sabha MP went on to list the ministers in various non-NDA state governments who had been arrested and later got bail, with their trial still continuing.

Sibal cited the examples of AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia, the Congress' P Chidambaram, D K Shivakumar and Alamgir Alam, and JMM's Hemant Soren, among others, saying they had been arrested for over a month and then got bail much later, with the trial not concluding even after years.

"No trial is complete. The home minister knows that when the PMLA and CBI get after them, nobody is granted bail. Even the Supreme Court had remarked -- why trial courts are not granting bail. And in the meantime, your political career is destroyed. The whole purpose of these laws is to weaponise laws for destabilising governments of opposition parties," Sibal alleged.

Even more surprising is the context in which these bills have been brought, as under the new laws of BNS, police custody could now extend to 60 or 90 days.

"Can the home minister talk about constitutional morality after the way the governments in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh, among other places, were toppled," he said.

"I don't think in the history of India, there has been a government which is more constitutionally immoral than this government," Sibal said.

Home Minister Amit Shah had last week introduced in the Lok Sabha three bills for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers, and ministers under arrest for 30 consecutive days on serious charges, drawing fierce protests from opposition MPs who tore up copies of the draft law.

The bills were sent by the House to a Joint Committee of Parliament comprising 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha for scrutiny.

The three bills are the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025; the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025.

The bills have proposed that if the prime minister, Union ministers or chief ministers are arrested and detained in custody for 30 consecutive days for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years, they will lose their jobs on the 31st day. PTI ASK ASK RT RT