By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Less than one month remains when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attain the age of 75 on September 17, 2025. Yet there is no announcement on his part that he would retire from public life, as politician and as ruler of the country. One can recall how he forced several BJP leaders, including his mentor, L K Advani, to retire, and they were not given even BJP ticket to contest. There is no sign of PM Narendra Modi’s accepting the same rule for himself, and there is no politician in BJP who can implement this rule on PM Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the strongest administrator, whom detractors believe autocratic. Everybody knows he does whatever he likes and there is no one within RSS-BJP or in the country who can control him. The 75-year rule is not meant for PM Narendra Modi, Similarly the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 is out of his brainwave aided by Amit Shah. The Bill has mentioned the post of the Prime Minister, in the same breath as mentioned Chief Ministers and other Ministers, “if’ arrested for 30 days, would be removed automatically. This “if” is too big an “IF” since it is only a theoretical position.
Practically, the NIA, CBI, and ED are under the government led by the Prime Minister. These central investigating agencies function under the prime minister. Therefore, believing an officer can arrest his own prime minister is an impossible proposition.. No Chief Minister or Union Minister can get the prime minister arrested, but a Prime Minister can get the Chief Ministers and other Union or State Minister arrested. We have already seen this in the recent past.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had said several times in the past, especially during his political campaigns that he would continue to take action against the “pack of corrupt” politicians of the INDIA bloc. Moreover, some of the Chief Ministers and Ministers of the States were arrested in the recent past. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has declared that he wants opposition “Congress Mukta Bharat”, which is currently leading the opposition INDIA bloc. An India, free of opposition, is a dangerous idea, which is contrary to the concept of democracy.
The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 is therefore a sword of Damocles to be hung over Chief Ministers and other Ministers, not over the PM Narendra Modi, or any other Prime Minister in the future. Whoever will be the Prime Minister would use this sword against his adversaries. We have seen how the present ruling establishment under Narendra Modi has been getting the Chief Ministers and other Ministers from the opposition political parties without giving them fair chance of trial. Even chargesheets were not filed against them, cases are under investigation, and there are not chance of beginning of trial in their cases in near future.
They simply languished in jail, and many of them ultimately got bail from the Supreme Court of India, which criticizes the investigating agencies like CBI and ED for the dubious arrests they made. In one of the cases, it even said that the central investigating agencies must not allow themselves to be used politically by the ruling establishment. The rate of conviction in ED cases in the last one decade against opposition political leaders is less than 1 per cent, as of March 2025. It clearly shows that leaders of the oppositions are being arrested without evidence, and for political reasons.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah brought three legislations on August 20 – the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha. The seek to amend Article 75, 164, and 239 AA of the Constitution of India and mandates – Removal of the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, and State/Delhi ministers if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on charges punishable by 5 years or more. Removal by the President (at the Union level) or by the Governor (at the state level), with automatic cessation of office should resignation or dismissal not occur by the 31st day. Re-appointment post-release is permitted. The Bill has since been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for further scrutiny.
The supporters of the bill are giving three chief logics. First is that it would promote accountability and integrity. The second is, as Amit Shah has said, Prime Minister is included under this law underscoring a commitment to apply the law equally. And the third is that it is a step for clean administration. All the three logics are absurd in the given scenario, since we all are witness to the fact that Prime Minister could not have been made accountable for any of his omissions and commissions; even the model code of conduct could not be applied by even Election Commission of India; and numerous official and non-official national and international reports are available which suggest that there is no clean administration under PM Narendra Modi. This proposed Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 is thus hollow.
It is therefore clear that the proposed bill will serve as additional tool in the hands of the Prime Minister to compel all Chief Ministers and Ministers to become his master’s voice, or face arrest and removal. An authoritarian prime minister or ruler, the history is the witness, can compel even constitutional posts to tow PM’s line or align with him. The Election Commission of India has been seen as aligning with Prime Minister precisely due to this reason, and even a Vice President has to resign under the threat of impeachment through a brute force of the majority of an authoritarian government.
The Constitutional (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 is conceptually faulty since it presumes the arrest as proof of guilt, even without a chargesheet, fair trial and conviction. It is against the principle of natural justice. It gives de-facto an additional tool in the hand of Prime Minister to keep the opposition leaders under political control under the threat of arrests, detentions, and removal. This legislation can potentially finish all opposition political parties, democracy, and federalism in the country. This could centralize power in the hand of the Prime Minister who can destabilize all the state governments. The key democratic safeguard would be under threat and on the mercy of the Prime Minister, which would erode the Constitutional norms.
No wonder that when the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, Members of Parliament from the opposition were seen tearing the bill and throwing it towards Union Minister of Home Amit Shah as a symbol of protest. The Bill was referred to a JPC for further scrutiny, but then as we have seen in the past, the government would be able to get this bill passed on their brute majority. INDIA bloc is therefore divided on whether to boycott JPC or join it. TMC says that there is no point in joining it since government would get it passed as we have seen in the case of Waqf legislation. Several other political parties are saying that JPC is the only platform left where they can at least register the dissent notes against the bill.
The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, after the JPC scrutiny, will be tabled in the parliament again in the winter session in December 2025. This legislation is most likely to be passed because the NDA has brute force of majority. Even if the opposition boycott the JPC or the Parliament, the past record of the PM Narendra Modi led government shows that it would get the legislation passed in absence of the opposition. If it happens, the entire political, and administrative system would be under the thumb of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That is the tragedy which Indian democracy may face. (IPA Service)
