Opposition parties staged a 12-hour overnight dharna inside the Parliament complex on Thursday night, protesting the passage of the VB-G RAM G Bill, which seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Leaders from multiple opposition parties accused the Centre of pushing the legislation through without adequate debate and warned that the protest would now move beyond Parliament and onto the streets across the country.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose led the protest, alleging that the Bill was “bulldozed” through the House despite strong objections. Sharing visuals from the overnight dharna on social media platform X, Ghose wrote, “Friday morning 2 am. at AITCofficial 12 hour dharna on the steps of Parliament against the narendramodi govt’s destruction of MNREGA. Bulldozing bills, pouring scorn on #RabindranathTagore, insulting Mahatma Gandhi, Modi govt is destroying democracy.”
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill was cleared by Parliament amid sustained protests from opposition benches.
Criticising both the content of the legislation and the manner in which it was passed, Ghose described the Bill as “anti-poor, anti-people, anti-farmer and anti-rural poor,” accusing the government of dismantling MGNREGA without proper parliamentary scrutiny.
“This is an insult to India’s poor, it is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi, it is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi, it is an insult to Rabindranath Tagore. With just five hours’ notice, this bill was given to us. We were not allowed a proper debate,” she said.
Ghose added that the opposition had demanded the Bill be referred to a Select Committee for wider consultation, “Our demand was that such an important bill should be sent to the Select Committee and let the opposition parties examine it, let the opposition parties discuss it, let all stakeholders discuss it, but no, in a display of tyranny, in a murder of democracy,” she said.
Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala also criticised the government, calling it a bleak moment for India’s labour force, “This is perhaps the saddest day for the labourers of India. BJP government has attacked the livelihood of 12 crore people by repealing the MGNREGA. They have proved that the Modi government is anti-farmer and anti-poor,” he alleged.
DMK leader Tiruchi Siva raised objections over what he described as the symbolic erasure of Mahatma Gandhi, alleging that statues of Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar had been shifted to less visible areas of Parliament, “Likewise they have removed Mahatma Gandhi’s name himself. Without Gandhi there is no freedom, that is the total belief in this country. Even in British parliament we are having Gandhi statue, but here in Indian parliament his statue is hidden somewhere, and now the scheme which bore his name, his name has also been removed,” he claimed.
Opposition leaders warned the overnight dharna marked the beginning of a wider agitation and indicated that protests would be intensified nationwide against what they described as an assault on rural employment and democratic norms.
