The question of who would hoist the flag in Delhi on August 15, 2024, arose when Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was incarcerated in Tihar Jail on corruption charges. The court, while expressing its inability to remove him, cited constitutional and legal provisions, stating that his resignation could not be sought without proof of guilt or sentencing.
This situation prompted senior ministers in the central government to question why the constitution’s framers had not considered such a scenario. After deliberation, the decision was made that the value of integrity in politics was declining, and the importance of public shame among politicians was decreasing.
With a decline across all aspects of society, politics is also affected. One minister noted that shamelessness was taking the place of integrity. Consequently, a law was needed to prevent a situation like that in Delhi from reoccurring.
Presenting the 130th amendment to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Home Minister Amit Shah shared that he, too, had faced legal proceedings and imprisonment. However, upon facing jail, he resigned beforehand and did not hold any government position until his cases were resolved.
However, opposition parties harbor several concerns regarding this constitutional amendment. During the bill’s presentation in the Lok Sabha, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, along with Congress’s Manish Tewari, KC Venugopal, and Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav, expressed apprehensions about the potential misuse of the bill against opposition parties. They fear that central agencies might be misused to harass state governments led by opposition parties, leading to the political exploitation of their chief ministers.
In protest of the bill, numerous parties from the India alliance, including the Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, and Congress, created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha’s well, tore copies of the bill, and created a tense atmosphere. Despite the protest, Home Minister Amit Shah initiated a detailed discussion and requested that the bill be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to gather opinions from all political parties. Over the next few days, the Lok Sabha Speaker will constitute a 31-member JPC after consulting all parties. This JPC will be tasked with submitting its report to the Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the upcoming session.
If the central government addresses the opposition’s fears regarding the bill’s political misuse, it would be difficult to question the intention behind its introduction. Considering the court’s helplessness in the Delhi Chief Minister’s case, the bill might be considered a necessity of the current times.
