'BJP wants to turn India into a dictatorship': Stalin reacts to 'criminal' PM, ministers bills in Lok Sabha

Stalin said the amendment was not a reform, but a 'black bill' which seeks to remove an elected Chief Minister or minister with 'no trial, and no conviction...'

Chennai: Terming the 130th Constitution (Amendment) Bill as the beginning of “dictatorship” in India, whose democratic foundations are being defiled through such moves, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday said this was a sinister attempt to intimidate regional parties in the NDA to not sever ties with them.

In a strongly-worded statement, Stalin said the Constitutional Amendment was not a reform, but a “black bill’ which seeks to remove an elected Chief Minister or minister with “no trial, and no conviction merely on the basis of the person’s arrest in a case that could land him or her in prison for five years or more.

“…just BJP’s diktat. This is how dictatorships begin: steal votes, silence rivals and crush states. I strongly condemn this Bill, which strikes at the very root of democracy, and I call upon all the democratic forces to unite against this attempt to turn India into a dictatorship,” Stalin said.

The first move of any emerging dictator is to give himself the power to arrest and remove rivals from office, Stalin said, adding that this is exactly what the Bill seeks to do, taking aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The DMK president accused the BJP government at the Centre of deciding to defile the Constitution and its democratic foundations by turning India into a dictatorship under the Prime Minister.

He also questioned the timing of the introduction of the Bill seeking to know the BJP’s legitimacy in being power after the expose of Vote theft, the very mandate on which the Union BJP Government was formed is in serious question.

“Having stolen the mandate of the people through fraud, the BJP is now desperate to distract public attention from this expose. To do that, they have brought in the 130thConstitutional Amendment Bill,” Stalin said.

He said the simple plan of the Bill is to grant blanket powers to the BJP to foist false cases against political opponents in power across states and remove them by misusing provisions that treat even a 30-day arrest as a ground for removal of an elected leader, without any conviction or trial.

“This unconstitutional amendment will certainly be struck down by the courts because guilt is decided only after trial, not by the mere registration of a case. This is a sinister attempt to intimidate regional parties in the NDA, whose leaders are CMs or Ministers in various States — “stick with us or else…,” Stalin added.