With Arvind Kejriwal's example, Amit Shah's strong push for bills to oust jailed ministers

Home minister Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah has said that Arvind Kejriwal would have had to resign as the chief minister of Delhi under the proposed law to oust jailed ministers facing criminal charges.

In an interview to ANI, Shah put up a staunch defence of the three bills which were tabled in Parliament during the monsoon session and have been sent to the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) for review.

Shah repeatedly gave the example of Kejriwal, who continued to serve as the Delhi chief minister from jail and did not resign immediately following his arrest.

"If this law had been in place, he would have had to resign. When the public started protesting after he came out, he resigned on moral grounds, and made Atishi ji the chief minister of Delhi because as soon as he started moving around, the public asked him questions," Shah told ANI.

He pointed out that many ministers, including himself, resigned from their posts in the past on moral grounds after facing arrest.

"Advani ji, Madanlal Khurana and several others had resigned. Just now, Hemant Soren ji (Jharkhand CM) had resigned ... Anyone who was accused in a case used to resign. After being acquitted, they restarted in politics," he said.

He added how "some ministers of Tamil Nadu and Delhi's minister and chief minister" did not resign following their arrest. "If the level of morality of politics and social life is being taken down in this way, we do not agree with it," he added.

Shah was alluding to Kejriwal, who did not resign following his arrest in 2024, as well as former Tamil Nadu ministers K Ponmudy and Senthil Balaji, who also remained in office after their arrest.

Shah said that he himself resigned as the home minister of Gujarat after being embroiled in a fake case in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter. He added that he did not hold any constitutional post until the case was fully quashed.

Shah stressed that the proposed laws apply uniformly across parties and leaders, including those from the BJP.

"In the states ruled by the BJP, if there is any corruption case against our minister or CM and let us assume that the law is not working as it should, then any person can go to the court and request the court to order an FIR against the concerned person. When Congress government was there, they used to do this. I can count at least 12 cases in UPA 2, where CBI investigations were done on the orders of the court and all the people were caught..."