Lok Sabha Passes G Ram G Bill Amid Uproar, Opposition Stages Strong Protest

The G Ram G Bill, set to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), was passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday amid intense protests by Opposition members. The legislation was cleared despite repeated demands from the Opposition to refer it to a standing committee. As the Speaker maintained that the Bill had already been discussed at length, Opposition MPs entered the Well of the House, raised slogans and tore papers in protest. The Bill will now be taken up in the Rajya Sabha.

Several Opposition leaders, including Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, DMK’s T R Baalu and Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav, strongly opposed the Bill during the debate. They argued that removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the rural employment guarantee law amounted to an insult to the Father of the Nation. The Opposition also alleged that the proposed legislation would increase the financial burden on state governments.

Defending the Bill, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress of selectively naming laws after Jawaharlal Nehru in the past and questioned its moral authority to object now. Countering Priyanka Gandhi’s claim that the government has a “craze” for renaming schemes, Chouhan said it was the Opposition that was obsessed with names, while the Narendra Modi-led government was focused on performance. He alleged that MGNREGA had become a tool of corruption and said the new law was introduced after consultations with stakeholders.

As protests intensified, several Opposition MPs moved into the Well of the House and continued shouting slogans, with some tearing documents. Speaker Om Birla strongly reprimanded them, saying, “The people have not sent you here to tear paper. The nation is watching you,” before adjourning the House.