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Prashant Kishor backs NDA bills on PM, CM removal: ‘Constitution makers may not have imagined…'
Prashant Kishor, who is billing himself as a fresh choice in poll-bound Bihar, spoke in favour of contentious bills that have been sent to parliamentary panel
Election campaign strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, who is fighting to emerge as a non-NDA, non-INDIA bloc choice in poll-bound Bihar, on Wednesday spoke in favour of three contentious bills brought in by the NDA's central government to remove ministers if they face serious criminal allegations.
“When the Constitution was drafted, the people who created it and the country's founders may not have anticipated that those in power would become so corrupt and criminal that they would have to go to jail. Moreover, that these leaders would not relinquish their positions even after imprisonment,” Kishor said, as per ANI.
"I believe the bill is good because if a leader is accused and sent to jail, they cannot continue running the government from jail," he added.
Prashant Kishor's assertions were similar to those made by union home minister Amit Shah, who introduced the bills in the Lok Sabha.
Shah posted on X: “When the Constitution was framed, its makers could not have imagined that in the future, political leaders would refuse to resign on moral grounds even after being arrested.”
What bills say, and what happened to Bihar's Lalu Yadav
The set of three bills — since referred to the parliamentary panel for review — says the PM, CMs, and ministers at any level of government shall be removed automatically if they spend 30 consecutive days in prison on charges that carry jail sentence of at five years or more.
Such removal won't need the leader to have been proven guilty, the Opposition has pointed out. Hence the bills weaponise mere allegations, leaders of the Congress, RJD and other parties in Bihar and at the Centre have said.
Current laws require conviction by a court of law for an MP or MLA to lose their seat, and positions held thereof.
In Bihar, RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav faced disqualification on this count after he was found guilty in corruption cases.
The proposed laws, had they been in force, would also have disqualified leaders such as Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren when they spent several months in jail on corruption allegations while being chief ministers of Delhi and Jharkhand, respectively, last year.
For now, the bills are with a panel that would gather and submit suggestions from across the spectrum. It is to submit a report by the next session of Parliament, likely in November.
