New Delhi, 18 December (H.S.): Opposition parliamentarians staged a vehement demonstration in the Parliament House complex on Thursday, protesting the introduction of the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission (Rural) or VB-G Ram Ji Bill, 2025, which seeks to supplant the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Prominent leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, MPs KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Pramod Tiwari, Digvijaya Singh, Syed Naseer Hussain, Dharmendra Yadav, and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Arvind Sawant participated in the agitation.

Demonstrators brandished posters and raised resounding slogans such as Restore MGNREGA, Stop Snatching the Poor's Rights, Return Workers' Entitlements, Long Live MGNREGA.

Addressing reporters, Kharge asserted that the issue transcends mere renaming; it represents a deliberate assault on the right to work, with the government poised to dictate employment terms arbitrarily and later deny jobs citing lack of demand.Syed Naseer Hussain labeled the move as an anti-poor, anti-labor ploy by the administration intent on stripping citizens of their employment rights.

AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang highlighted MGNREGA's pivotal role in providing livelihoods to the underprivileged, criticizing the new Bill for extending work days while excluding peak agricultural seasons, potentially forcing workers into private sectors where wages remain unregulated and exploitative. Opposition leaders vowed sustained resistance from Parliament to the streets against what they termed an assault on rural socioeconomic transformation.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar