Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday defended the Bill to sack the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers if lodged in jail for over 30 days in any case. Speaking on the 130th Amendment Bill, Shah questioned whether a PM or CM can run the office from jail. The Home Minister also said that even the constitution makers would not have imagined such shamelessness that a CM would go to jail and continue as the CM from jail. 

“When the constitution was made, the constitution makers would not have imagined such shamelessness that a CM would go to jail and continue as the CM from jail,” said Shah while slamming former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who had refused to resign, even after going to jail.

Home Minister Amit Shah added, “Should anyone run the government from jail? Since independence, many leaders have gone to jail. Recently, a trend has started of not resigning even after going to jail. Some ministers of Tamil Nadu did not resign, ministers and CM of Delhi did not resign. Will this give respect to our democracy in the world?”

Shah On Arvind Kejriwal

The Union Home Minister further said, “If this law had been in place, he would have had to resign. When the public started protesting after he came out, he resigned on moral grounds, and made Atishi ji the Chief Minister of Delhi because as soon as he started moving around, the public asked him questions.”

Shah said that courts also understand the seriousness of the law. “When one has to resign after 30 days, before that, the Court will decide whether the person should get bail or not. When Arvind Kejriwal was in jail and the case went to the High Court that he should resign, the High Court said that we believed he should resign on moral grounds, but there is no provision in the current law. My party believes, the PM of the country believes that no CM, Minister or PM in this country can run the government while being in jail,” said Shah.

On Satyendar Jain

On Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain’s time behind prison, Shah said, “He (Jain) did not get bail for four years. The case is still going on. The closure report was not filed in the FIR, in which he was in jail for four years. The closure report was filed in the 2022 case. In the four cases in which he went to jail for a long time, CBI has charge sheeted him in all four cases, and he is facing trial. Satyendar Jain ji has been chargesheeted in all the cases in which he had to stay in jail for a long time, and he is facing trial.”