New Delhi, Dec 16: Several opposition MPs protested in the Parliament House complex on Tuesday over the VB-G RAM G Bill that has become a new flashpoint with the government, as they accused the BJP-led NDA dispensation of “insulting” Mahatma Gandhi by renaming MGNREGA scheme and demanded the withdrawal of the proposed legislation.
Soon after the government introduced the bill in Lok Sabha seeking to replace MGNREGA, Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK’s TR Baalu, RSP’s N K Premchandran, among others, held the protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the complex, raising slogans like “Gandhi ji ka ye apmann nahi sahega Hindustan (country will not tolerate this insult of Mahatma Gandhi)”.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of attempting to finish off the rural employment guarantee law — Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 — that was implemented by the erstwhile UPA dispensation.
The opposition MPs gathered near the steps of the Makar Dwar of Parliament with pictures of Mahatma Gandhi in hand and walked to the statue of the Father of the Nation at Prerna Sthal.
“Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, awakened the soul of the country. He played the biggest role in our country’s freedom struggle… Today, the BJP doesn’t have anything new to do, and that is why they are changing the name,” Samajwadi Party chief and Lok Sabha MP Akhilesh Yadav said.
Speaking with reporters, Priyanka also slammed the government for its “obsession with changing the names” of schemes. “This scheme is named after Mahatma Gandhi who is our Father of the Nation,” she pointed out.
She alleged that the BJP government, by introducing a bill to repeal MGNREGA, seeks to strip millions of labourers across the country of their legal guarantee to employment. “The bill they have introduced is against millions of labourers in the country, as well as against village assemblies and village panchayats. It should be withdrawn immediately,” she said.
The government has added two or three things to the bill that superficially suggest an increase in the number of working days. “But has the wage rate been increased?” she asked.
It would burden states and the poor ones will not be able to bear the cost, resulting in the collapse of the scheme, she said. (PTI)
