'Reasonable': Shashi Tharoor differs with Congress on Modi govt's 'bill to remove arrested PM, CMs and ministers'

What is the bill about?

The bill will ensure the removal of elected representatives arrested or detained on serious criminal charges from office on Wednesday.

The proposed law will cover the Prime Minister, Union ministers, Chief Ministers, and ministers of Union Territories.

Besides this, two other bills- the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025, the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025- could be moved to a parliamentary committee.

Congress calls it 'draconian bill'

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "I see the bill for the removal of CMs and ministers as a completely draconian thing. To say it as an anti-corruption measure, is just to pull a veil across the eyes of the people.

"Tomorrow, you can put any kind of a case on a CM, have him arrested for 30 days without conviction, and he ceases to be a Chief Minister. It is absolutely wrong, anti-constitutional, undemocratic and very unfortunate."

Reasonable, says Tharoor going against party line

Tharoor, who earlier differed with Congress on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor outreach, favoured the removal of a PM or CM from his/her post in case of detention or arrest.

He told ANI, "As far as I am concerned, I don't know those Bills well enough to give you a comment. On the face of it, it seems reasonable that anyone who does anything wrong should be liable to punishment and should not be holding a high constitutional office or a political office. I think that makes sense..."

Speaking to NDTV, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, "If you spend 30 days in jail, can you continue to be a minister? This is a matter of common sense... I don't see anything wrong in this."

Tharoor's praise for PM Modi

Tharoor, who was one of the 'G-23' leaders to question the Gandhis' leadership, was the leader of one of the delegations that the Modi government had sent to foreign countries to give a briefing on Operation Sindoor.

Tharoor, who has been praising Modi's foreign policies of late, had defended the government on the question of an intelligence failure in Pahalgam where the terror attack took place on April 22.

Though the Operation Sindoor was hailed by the Opposition bloc INDIA, the ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan was widely jibed by the Congress with its social handles comparing Modi with his predecessor late Indira Gandhi who defied the United States' objection to liberate East Pakistan and form Bangladesh with a war in 1971.

Going against the Congress' stand, Tharoor had said, "The truth is the circumstances of 1971 and 2025 are not the same. As far as I am concerned, I believe the people of India deserve peace, we have suffered a lot, had a lot of casualties... I am not saying we should always stop wars when there are reasons to continue but this was not a war we intended to continue. We just wanted to teach the terrorists a lesson..."