Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has torn into the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill calling it “Black law” brought on a “black day” to mount a Hitlerian assault on the Indian democracy.
The Bill seeks to bring Central and State ministers within its ambit for corrupt practices recommending their removal if they are are jailed or detained on graft charges for 30 days.
Calling it a something “more than a super Emergency,” she wrote on the X, “I condemn the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill, proposed to be tabled by the Government of India. I condemn it as a step towards something that is more than a super-emergency, a step to end the democratic era of India forever. This draconian step comes as a death knell for democracy and federalism in India.”
While her nephew and Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for reading out the draft Bill “like a coward from the fourth row and in protection of marshals”.
The Chief Minister said the draft proposal had been brought “to suppress the voting rights of the Indian citizens in the name of Special Intensive Revision (SIR), this is another super-draconian step by the Centre now.”
The draft proposal tends to bring even a Chief Minister within its ambit. She wrote, “this Bill now wants to finish the independence of our judiciary. What we are witnessing is unprecedented - the Bill is nothing short of a Hitlerian assault on the very soul of Indian democracy. The Bill seeks to strip the judiciary of its Constitutional role — to take away the power of Courts to adjudicate on matters that lie at the very heart of justice and federal balance.”
Saying that the Bill strikes at the very basic structure of the Constitution which was once upheld by the Supreme Court in the landmark Keshavananda Bharati case, the Chief Minister wrote, “the Bill strikes at the basic structure of the Constitution — federalism, separation of powers, and judicial review — principles that even Parliament cannot override. If allowed to pass, it will be a death warrant for Constitutional governance in India.”
Saying that this “dangerous overreach” must be resisted Banerjee said that the intent of the Bill was to lace the Union Government with powers so as to intrude into the people’s democratic rights by subverting their mandates.
“The Bill must be resisted at any cost! Democracy must be saved at this moment! The people will not forgive any attempt to take away their Courts, their rights and their democracy,” the CM maintained.
She said the Bill would give “sweeping powers to unelected authorities (ED, CBI — whom the Supreme Court has described as ‘caged parrots’) to interfere in the functioning of elected State Governments.”
Incidentally the topmost echelon of the TMC leadership has been facing a plethora of charges from Sharada and Narada to recruitment scams involving to thousands of crores.
The Wednesday’s Bill proposes to amend Article 75 of the Constitution, which primarily deals with the appointment and responsibilities of the Council of Ministers, including the Prime Minister.
Abhishek Banerjee who is also the Member of Parliament from Diamond Harbour constituency said that the Bill would not be allowed to be passed. “They know that they cannot carry this Bill and they have only brought it to divert attention from the nationwide agitation against the Special Intensive Revision and that the massive response the movement is getting in Bihar,” the Abhishek Banerjee said.