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Amit Shah had resigned as Gujarat’s Home Minister in 2010 after being arrested by the CBI in connection with a fake encounter case.
KC Venugopal said the bills were brought in to sabotage the federal system of the country. (Sansad TV)
The Lok Sabha witnessed a stormy and heated face-off between the Centre and the opposition over three contentious bills that provide for the removal of the Prime Minister or Chief Ministers arrested on serious criminal charges and kept in custody for over 30 days.
During the house proceedings, a short but sharp exchange took place between Congress MP KC Venugopal and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the “morality” of the legislation.
Face Off Between Amit Shah, Congress MP
After the bills– the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025, were tabled in the Lok Sabha, Venugopal invoked Shah’s arrest in the 2010 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case as Gujarat’s Home Minister and questioned his morality.
“This bill is to sabotage the federal system of the country; it is meant to sabotage the basic principles of the Constitution. Leaders of the BJP are saying that this bill is to bring morality into politics. Can I ask the Home Minister a question? When he was the home minister of Gujarat, he was arrested. Did he uphold morality at that time?” the Congress MP asked, sparking an uproar in the house.
👉 I oppose this bill.👉 BJP leaders claim that this bill aims to bring morality into politics, but I would like to ask the Home Minister of India: when he was the Home Minister of Gujarat and faced arrest, did he consider taking moral responsibility and resigning?
👉 This… pic.twitter.com/EJllYH4JgP
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 20, 2025
A visibly agitated Shah quickly responded with emphasis and said that the charges levelled against him were “false,” but he abided by constitutional principles by resigning from his post before going to jail.
“I want to set the record straight. Fake allegations were levelled against me, but despite that, I abided by morality and ethics and not only resigned but did not accept any constitutional post until I was cleared of all charges. They are trying to teach us morality? I had resigned. I want morality to increase. We can’t be so shameless that we are charged and we continue to hold Constitutional posts. I had resigned before I was arrested,” he asserted, drawing loud reactions from the treasury bench.
Later, in a post on X, he stated, “I want to remind Congress that I had already resigned before being arrested, and even after being released on bail, I did not take any constitutional position until I was fully proven innocent by the court. The court dismissed the false case against me, stating that it was motivated by political vendetta.”
He further said that the BJP and NDA have always stood for ethical values. “Shri Lal Krishna Advani ji also resigned from his post as soon as allegations were made against him. On the other hand, the Congress party continues to carry forward the unethical tradition started by Smt. Indira Gandhi ji,” he added.
आज सदन में काँग्रेस के एक नेता ने मेरे बारे में व्यक्तिगत टिप्पणी भी की, कि जब काँग्रेस ने मुझे पूरी तरह से फर्जी केस में फँसाया और गिरफ़्तार कराया, तब मैंने इस्तीफा नहीं दिया।मैं काँग्रेस को याद दिलाना चाहता हूँ कि मैंने अरेस्ट होने से पहले ही इस्तीफा दे दिया था और बेल पर बाहर…— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 20, 2025
Shah had resigned as Gujarat’s Home Minister in 2010 after being arrested by the CBI in connection with the fake encounter case. He was in jail for three months before being granted bail, and in 2014, a special CBI court acquitted him of all charges, citing lack of evidence.
What’s In The Bill?
In a post on X, the Union Minister said that the Constitutional Amendment Bill was introduced to affirm the Modi government’s commitment against political corruption in the country and the public’s outrage.
He said that the purpose of this bill is to elevate the declining level of morality in public life and bring integrity to politics.
As per Shah, the law that will come into existence through these three bills is as follows:
(1) No person, while arrested and in jail, can govern as Prime Minister, Chief Minister, or a minister of the central or state government.
(2) When the Constitution was framed, our Constitution makers could not have imagined that in the future, there would be political figures who would not resign on moral grounds before being arrested. In recent years, an astonishing situation has arisen in the country where Chief Ministers or ministers have continued to run the government immorally from jail without resigning.
(3) This bill also includes a provision that allows an accused politician to seek bail from the court within 30 days of arrest. If they fail to obtain bail within 30 days, on the 31st day, either the Prime Minister at the center or the Chief Ministers in the states will remove them from their posts, or they will automatically become legally ineligible to perform their duties. If such a leader is granted bail after the legal process, they can resume their position.
Lok Sabha Ruckus Over Bill
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a massive showdown between the treasury bench and the opposition after Shah introduced three bills– the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025– that provide for the removal of Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers or Chief Ministers arrested on serious criminal charges and kept in custody for 30 days for for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years.
The move came against the backdrop of recent controversies, like former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji continuing to hold office while in jail.
Opposition MPs, including Asasduddin Owaisi, Manish Tewari, NK Premchandran, Dharmendra Yadav and KC Venugopal, opposed the bill, calling it “anti-constitutional”.
Opposing the bills, Owaisi said they violate the principle of separation of powers and undermine the right of the people to elect a government.
“It gives executive agencies a free run to become judge and executioner based on flimsy allegations and suspicions…This government is hell-bent on creating a Police State. This will be a death nail unleashed on the elected government. India’s Constitution is being amended to turn this country into a Police State,” he added.
Tewari slammed the bills as “squarely destructive of the basic structure of the Constitution.” He warned that the legislation would open the floodgates for “political misuse” by agencies whose arbitrary conduct has already been questioned by the Supreme Court.
Opposition MPs also tore copies of three bills and threw paper bits towards him in the Lok Sabha. Speaker Om Birla later adjourned the House amid uproar.
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben…Read More
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben… Read More
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