Lok Sabha passes VB-G RAM G bill amid opposition protests over MGNREGA
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New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, aimed at replacing the 20-year-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with a new initiative guaranteeing 125 days of rural employment per year, despite vociferous opposition protests.
Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, responding to an eight-hour debate, asserted that the Modi government was upholding the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi through various welfare schemes. “Congress killed the ideals of Bapu. The NDA ensures Bapu lives through pucca houses under PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Ayushman Bharat,” Chouhan said, listing key initiatives for the welfare of the poor.
Opposition members trooped to the well of the House, raising slogans against the government for allegedly dropping Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the rural jobs initiative. Some tore copies of the VB-G RAM G Bill and flung them toward the chair. Despite the uproar, the Bill was passed by a voice vote, after which the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.
Several opposition MPs staged a protest march inside Parliament, with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge asserting that the move represents the “systematic murder of the world’s largest employment scheme.” Carrying a large banner reading “Mahatma Gandhi NREGA,” MPs marched from the Gandhi statue at Prerna Sthal to Makar Dwar, chanting slogans against the government.
The protest included senior leaders such as Congress president Sonia Gandhi, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, DMK’s K Kanhimozhi, TR Ballu, A Raja, IUML’s E T Mohammed Basheer, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, and RSP’s N K Premchandran.
Kharge, in a post on X, said the government had insulted Mahatma Gandhi and crushed the right to work, which was instrumental in India’s rural socio-economic transformation. “We will fight this tyranny from Parliament to the streets,” he added. Venugopal also termed the move as “murder of democracy”, alleging that removing Gandhi’s name from NREGA undermines democratic values and the Father of the Nation’s ideology.
The VB-G RAM G Bill provides a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment per financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work. Within six months of the Act’s commencement, states are required to formulate schemes consistent with the provisions of the new law.
The opposition has strongly opposed the Bill, accusing the government of insulting Mahatma Gandhi and diluting key provisions of the 2005 MGNREGA, which has been India’s largest rural employment programme for two decades.
With PTI inputs