'Murder of democracy': K C Venugopal slams Modi govt for impending bills on removal of PM, CMs if in custody for 30+ days
What are your views on the Bills that seek the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers if they are arrested and remain in custody for 30 days?
A
They want to introduce a real emergency in this country. This is basically the murder of democracy. On one side, we are discussing 'One Nation, One Election' and at the same time, they are talking about strengthening the federal system. These three Bills are clearly a murder of a federal system. If the Centre decides, they can put any Chief Minister or Minister in jail for 30 days. You will be removed from power even if there is no chargesheet, no conviction. This means the Prime Minister is getting indirect power to remove democratically elected Chief Ministers and ministers. This is one of the draconian Bills India has ever seen.
Q
What are your objections to The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill 2025, The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025 and The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025 that provides for removal of Prime Ministers and others?
A
The clear motive is to target Opposition-ruled states. They want to destabilise the opposition-ruled governments. This is going to be a dictatorship period. On one side, they are doing electoral malpractices through Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across India. They are killing democracy through that. They are threatening democratically elected governments. Therefore we have to oppose it at any cost.
Q
The government argument is that a minister facing allegations of serious criminal offences and in custody 'may thwart or hinder the canons of Constitutional morality'. What is your take?
A
If a person is not convicted and allegations against him are yet to be proved in a court, will you call him a culprit? The Constitution does not allow that. If a person is convicted, there are provisions. Can you imagine that a BJP Chief Minister or a BJP minister will be arrested? This is only aimed at Opposition-ruled states and not for those ruled by the BJP. They are also sending a threatening message to allies also, including TDP's N Chandra Babu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, and JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, the Bihar Chief Minister. This is a war on democracy.
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