A red herring.

"The Centre is set to introduce a Constitution amendment bill to provide legal framework for the removal of the Prime Minister, Union ministers, Chief ministers and state ministers who are arrested and detained on account of serious criminal offences." "The bill proposes that if a minister in a state or at the Centre, including chief minister or the Prime Minister, is arrested or detained in custody for 30 days in a case carrying a punishment which may extend to five years' imprisonment, he or she shall tender a reason before the 31st day of arrest. Failing this, the minister shall cease to hold office." ET. With the Home Minister exercising total control of police and investigative agencies this bill will create an absolute dictatorship. The misuse of the CBI, ED and the NIA by the ruling party is well documented. The Wire. The indiscriminate use of the Unlawful Activities Act (UAPA) which allows incarceration for an unlimited period without the necessity to provide evidence in court was noted by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. ORF. "Only two cases filed under the draconian UAPA were quashed by courts between 2018 and 2022, the Union Home Ministry told the Parliament." 6,503 individuals were charged, of whom only 252 have been convicted. The Wire. The rest are rotting in prison without trial. "The Supreme Court of India, in an observation made in a case on August 8, came down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and raised significant concerns over its modus operandi, emphasizing the need for the agency to operate strictly within legal boundaries." ET. It is known that, 23 of 25 opposition politicians, who switched over to the BJP, had charges dropped, leading to the BJP being labeled the 'washing machine party'. FE. "The response of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to charges of voter list manipulation by Congress Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi suggests that there may have been massive fraud in the electoral processes." "It is unclear, however, for how long such alleged manipulation of voter rolls has been going on, but the ECI does not seem to be in any mood to entertain any complaints," wrote Prof Ajay Gudavarthy. Voter rolls or the counting of votes was manipulated in the 2019 general election to BJP's gain. In 2023, "Ashoka University in Haryana has accepted the resignation of economics teacher Sabyasachi Das, who quit a fortnight after the varsity publicly distanced itself from his working paper that alleged electoral manipulation in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls." Prof Pulapre Balakrishnan resigned "in solidarity". TT. It is imperative that the police and investigative agencies are not controlled by politicians or civil servants. We need an independent public prosecutor with powers to investigate anyone, including the prime minister, who will be answerable to a committee with representation from civil society, the opposition and a judge of the High Court. This bill has included the prime minister as a red herring to give the bill an appearance of being equitable. Instead, it is designed for absolute power. It must be aborted. This instant.