Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting, in Kolkata.
Credit: PTI photo
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress and the Congress, as well as other opposition parties, are protesting against the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, because they fear that their corrupt leaders may now have to face severe punishment for the sins they committed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.
Modi accused the ruling Trinamool Congress, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, of facilitating large-scale infiltration of illegal migrants from across the border to West Bengal.
He alleged that West Bengal was heading towards a social crisis due to the changes in demography caused by the infiltration and encroachment of the land of the farmers by illegal migrants.
The prime minister called upon the people of West Bengal to oust the TMC government and elect the Bharatiya Janata Party.
With the assembly elections in West Bengal just about seven or eight months away, Modi laid the foundation stone for the Rs 1,200 crore six-lane Kona Expressway project, in addition to inaugurating metro rail services on three new stretches in Kolkata.
He also addressed a rally organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit and slammed the Congress, the TMC, and other parties in the I.N.D.I.A bloc for opposing the new Bills, which his government introduced in the Lok Sabha to create a legal framework for the removal of the prime minister, a minister of the central government, a chief minister or a minister of a state or a Union Territory, when arrested or detained on serious criminal charges for 30 days in a row.
“We decided to bring in a law to dismiss a corrupt chief minister or even a prime minister if they spend 30 days in jail. But the TMC and the Congress began protesting. They even tried to tear up the Bill on the floor of Parliament. They just want to shield the corrupt leaders of their parties,” he alleged.
“It is a shame that even a chief minister, after going to jail, has run the government from behind bars,” Modi added, taking a subtle dig at the former chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal.
Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the 130th Constitution (Amendment) Bill, along with the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025, in the Lok Sabha amid ruckus.
Modi noted that two ministers of the TMC government, even after going to jail on corruption charges, were not willing to give up their posts. “Those arrested over allegations of corruption cannot remain in government while in jail. This is an insult to the Constitution. Modi will not allow that,” vowed the prime minister.
Mamata recently called for resisting the attempt of the BJP-led government at the Centre to empower itself to intrude upon the mandate of the people, handing sweeping powers to unelected authorities, like the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation, to interfere in the functioning of elected state governments.
It is a step to empower the prime minister and the home minister in a sinister manner at the expense of the basic principles of the Constitution, she said.