The 130th Constitution Amendment Bill circulated by the Union Home Ministry late in the night of 19 August to provide for automatic removal of ministers arrested and jailed on any allegation for more than thirty days is an open assault on the federal framework and parliamentary democratic system.

The weaponisation of central agencies like ED, CBI, IT, NIA and the abuse of the Constitutional office of Governors in narrow partisan interest, a trend which has been seriously condemned on several occasions even by the Supreme Court, will now gain legal validity with the enactment of this Bill.

Every state government opposed to the BJP's politics and policies will henceforth be rendered permanently destabilised and dysfunctional. Every NDA ally will be on tenterhooks to fall in line with the BJP.

Viewed together with the ongoing systematic subversion of the electoral system starting with the appointment of Election Commissioners to the relentless push for 'One Nation, One Election' system, this amendment will sound the death knell for federalism and parliamentary democracy in India.

All who care for democracy and the constitutional foundation and functioning of our Republic must therefore squarely reject this draconian and sinister Constitutional Amendment Bill.