The Home Minister, Amit Shah, has presented the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill, wrapped in the garb of morality and public virtue. Utter hogwash! He has been going around claiming to elevate standards. He wants to ensure that those who fall under the shadow of criminality do not sit in Parliament or state legislatures.

It sounds almost noble: who could oppose a law that seeks to keep criminals out of politics? But under the layers of justification, one can effortlessly fathom that it is a venomous agency to suppress the opposition and hijack the Parliament.

The Bill proposes that elected representatives should be disqualified merely upon custody. That moves the bar of disqualification from judicial oversight to the discretion of the police and prosecutorial machinery. In a democracy where the executive controls law enforcement, such a clause is tantamount to an invitation to vendetta politics.

If passed, it would mean that the BJP can even more easily silence dissenters, arrest rivals on flimsy charges, and immediately render them disqualified, all under the guise of morality. The courtroom, with all its checks and balances, is circumvented by the blunt tool of police custody.

This is unconstitutional in both spirit and letter. The right of disqualification should be attached with due process of conviction in a court of law. Anything short of that tramples upon Article 21's guarantee of personal liberty and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. To disqualify elected representatives without conviction is to invert that principle, declaring guilt before trial. It is also an insult to the electorate, for it nullifies their democratic choice through administrative whim.

We are all aware how agencies like the CBI, ED, and IT Department have been weaponised against political opponents. Leaders of opposition parties are routinely summoned, raided, and arrested, while those who defect to the ruling party mysteriously find their cases dissolved. Under such conditions, the 130th Amendment would hand over a constitutional crowbar to pry open the opposition benches and hollow them out with ease.

If morality is indeed the guiding principle, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah must first begin at home. Several ministers in the Union Cabinet, including themselves, have committed severe criminal acts, including those of violence and incitement.

If the nation is to have a law that purges politics of criminal taint, why should these men remain in office? Why should the highest leaders of the BJP not set the precedent by vacating their own chairs, or by cleansing their party of ministers with pending charges? Anything less exposes the Bill for what it is. It is not a moral revolution but a political weapon.

The pretence of righteousness cannot disguise the authoritarian intent. The 130th Amendment is not about cleaning politics but about controlling it. To pass it would be to push India one step closer to an elected autocracy where opposition is criminalised by convenience.

Democracy survives not by policing rivals out of the field but by letting citizens choose their leaders freely. If this government truly believes in morality, it should begin by applying the law to itself.