Amid continued slogans of “save the constitution and save the democracy” from opposition benches, Speaker Om Prakash Birla adjourned proceedings.
Published Aug 20, 2025 | 4:15 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 20, 2025 | 4:22 PM
The bills were tabled in the House by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday.
Synopsis: The Lok Sabha saw a tense debate on Wednesday over three bills introduced by the BJP-led NDA, proposing the removal of the Prime Minister, Union ministers, Chief Ministers, and state ministers if arrested for 30 consecutive days on serious charges. Opposition MPs, including Asaduddin Owaisi, Manish Tewari, and KC Venugopal, criticised the bills as unconstitutional, draconian, and a threat to parliamentary democracy, while Speaker Om Birla to adjourned proceedings amid continued opposition sloganeering.
The Lok Sabha witnessed a heated debate on Wednesday, 20 August, over three bills introduced by the BJP-led NDA that provide a legal framework for the removal of the Prime Minister, Union ministers, Chief Ministers, and state ministers if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on serious charges.
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 were first listed in the House on Tuesday, giving MPs little time to scrutinise them.
They were tabled in the House by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday amid continued opposition and slogans from the opposition benches.
A mere handful of opposition MPs were allowed to speak. Amid continued slogans of “save the constitution and save the democracy” from opposition benches, Speaker Om Prakash Birla adjourned proceedings first to 3 pm, which was later extended to 5 pm, after repeatedly warning members against their conduct.
AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi was the first opposition member to speak during the debate, strongly opposing the bill’s intent as an effort to “create a police state”.
“[The bills] violate the principle of separation of powers, due process and undermines the right of the people for an elected government. It gives executive agencies a free reign and to become judge, jury and executioner, based on flimsy allegations and suspicions. Only when an offense is proved beyond reasonable doubt, then only you can leave the post and membership,” he said.
“This bill would empower an unelected executive bureaucracy to play the role of legislature. It undermined representative parliamentary democracy… This government is hell-bent on creating a police state. This would be a death knell to the elected governments.”
Today’s three amendment bills will automatically remove any Minister if detained or kept in custody for 30 days. The govt is turning India into a police state. This is a direct assault separation of powers, and representative democracy. pic.twitter.com/HDj4erRzM2
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) August 20, 2025
Similarly, Congress MP and former Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting Manish Tewari called them “squarely destructive of the basic structure of the Constitution”.
“This bill turns that fundamental maxim of jurisprudence on its head. It makes an investigating officer the boss of the Prime Minister of India… It violates Article 21… This bill turns the fundamental jurisprudence of Article 21 on its head… It distorts parliamentary democracy, which is part of the basic structure, by displacing the will of the people through mere custody bereft of a judicial determination… This bill opens the door for political misuse by instrumentalities of the state,” he said.
He further warned that the bills threatened to nullify existing constitutional safeguards such as collective responsibility, judicial review, no-confidence motions, and disqualification on conviction.
“And this makes this amendment excessive, unnecessary and unconstitutional. I condemn these three bills, and they should be withdrawn,” Tewari added, calling for their immediate retraction.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal offered the strongest opposition to the bill, directly criticising Home Minister Amit Shah.
“I oppose this bill. This bill is meant to sabotage the federal system of the country; this bill is to sabotage the basic principle of the Constitution. BJP people are telling us that this bill would bring morality into politics. I would like to ask the honourable Home Minister Amit Shah, who introduced this bill, when he had been a minister in the Gujarat government and was arrested, did he take moral responsibility?” he questioned.
When Vote Chori is on everyone’s minds,
When @RahulGandhi ji’s Yatra is getting unparalleled support,
When Opposition Governments need to be targeted,
When allies like Chandrababu Naidu garu and Nitish Kumar ji need to be threatened…
The Home Minister brings this dangerous… pic.twitter.com/ABKfatgjd8
— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) August 20, 2025
Seemingly taking strong exception to Venugopal’s remarks, Amit Shah rose to respond, interrupting the latter’s time, and asserted that he had never accepted a constitutional post until directed by a court, to muted support from the treasury benches.
Venugopal later termed the bills draconian in a post on X and suggested it was an attempt to distract from the various troubles ensnaring the ruling dispensation and simultaneously a tool to intimidate unwilling allies.
“When Vote Chori is on everyone’s minds, when Rahul Gandhiji’s Yatra is getting unparalleled support, when opposition governments need to be targeted, when allies like Chandrababu Naidu garu and Nitish Kumar ji need to be threatened… The Home Minister brings this dangerous bill that strikes at the heart of the constitutional principles of federalism,” he wrote.
Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav, from Azamgarh, had his microphone muted midway through his speech on the bills.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
