Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday raised a poser to defend the draft Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill that mandates the removal of Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and ministers from their respective posts if jailed for more than 30 days.

"Would the people want the Prime Minister to run the country from jail? Should the chief secretary, DGP and home secretary go to the jail to get the PM/CM to sign files?" Amit Shah asked at the inaugural session of the Manorama News Conclave 2025 held at the Lulu Bolgatty International Convention Centre in Kochi.

"It is a question of morality," the home minister said, while responding to a question on the topic ‘India: Pace & Progress'. He said the framers of the Constitution did not anticipate a situation where jailed chief ministers would run the government from behind the bar. He even said that former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would have won had he not tried to rule Delhi from jail.

The Constitution Amendment Bill aims to amend three Articles in the Constitution: Articles 75, 164 and 239AA. It states that "any Minister, Chief Minister, or the Prime Minister, who is arrested and is in custody for over 30 days after being accused of an offence punishable by a jail term of five years or more, shall be removed from office."

Shah also wanted to know what changed for Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi in 15 years. When Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, Shah said Rahul had torn up an ordinance that sought to circumvent a Supreme Court verdict that said that MPs and MLAs convicted with a minimum two-year sentence would be immediately disqualified. "What happened in between the tearing up of your own ordinance and this latest objection to the draft amendment (of three bills) that we have introduced," Shah asked. "Now at an Opposition event, he was seen embracing Laluji (Lalu Prasad Yadav), the very same person for whom the ordinance he had hated was devised," he said.

Shah also lauded what he termed the principled stand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi moved the 39th amendment of the Constitution (in 1975), she had placed the office of the Prime Minister away from judicial reach. "But the latest amendment covers the office of the Prime Minister, too," Shah said.

Vote chori charge
The Home Minister was also dismissive of Rahul Gandhi's 'vote chori' allegations. Echoing the stand of the Election Commission, Shah said: "He is making the allegations on the road. He has not gone to the EC. How can the EC respond to what is said on the road?"

Regarding the Opposition’s allegations against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, Shah said they were creating unnecessary doubts in the minds of the people. "There are three stages of appeal available for those whose names have been removed from the voters’ list. The Congress has still not registered even a single compliant," he said, and raised yet another poser: "There are over 30 lakh voters who have been found dead in the electoral rolls. Should their names be removed or not?"