By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Lok Sabha passed the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee For Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill 2025 today December 18, 2025 which seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act amid fierce opposition, uproar, and tearing of the copy of the Bill by opposition in protest. The Bill will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Union Minister for Rural Development, and Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan on December 16, and was debated on December 17 until 10 PM. Even as opposition had demanded roll back of the G RAM G Bill 2025, the government had clearly conveyed its intention to pass the Bill, in the ongoing session of the Parliament itself that is going to concluded tomorrow December 19, 2025.
During the several protest demonstrations, including on in the Parliament Complex and at several places across the country, the protestors demanded immediate withdrawal of the Bill, which was just ignored by the government. Even today December 18, the Parliament of India and its complex have witnessed strong protests over VB – G RAM G by the opposition political parties.
Members of the opposition wanted the Bill sent to a standing committee of the Parliament. They protested in the Well of the house when the Lok Sabha Speaker said that the legislation had been discussed at length. Opposition MPs even tore the copies of the Bill.
While replying the debate, Union Minister Shivraj Sigh Chouhan said that MGNREGA was nothing but a tool of corruption and claimed that the new law has been brought after discussion with stakeholders. Opposition leaders said that MGNREGA was a support for the poorest of the poor, and the new Bill is anti-poor.
The Bill seeks to replace the MGNREGA 2005, over which protest was intensified, while states including BJP and NDA ruled states have raised concerns about increase of financial burden on states. Though NDA allies are supporting the bill, TDP has flagged increased burden on states and pointed out that a fund-starved state like Andhra Pradesh will need additional support.
The opposition MPs hold protest march on December 18 in the morning in Parliament Complex demanding withdrawal of VB – G RAM G Bill. With photographs of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, the MGNREGA is named after, the MPs of opposition political parties took out a protest march from the Gandhi statue at Prerna Sthal to Makar Dwar, raising slogan against the government led by PM Narendra Modi.
Apart from the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav, DMK MP TR Baalu, A Raja, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, IUML leader E T Mohammed Basheer, Shiv Sean (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, RSP leader N K Premchandran and others participated in the protests. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi also joined the protesting MPs at Makar Dwar.
Congress leader KC Venugopal told reporters, “Today Parliament is witnessing murder of democracy. By removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi from NREGA they are trying to kill the democratic values as well as the ideology of the Father of the Nation.”
Many objections have been raised against the G RAM G Bill including that it will put an end to the rural people’s right to get works on demand under MGNREGA scheme, which is the only rural employment guarantee programme in India. Within six months from the date of commencement of the G RAM G Act, the states will have to make a scheme consistent with the provisions of the new legislation. States are objecting because the G RAM G Bill seeks to put considerable financial burden on state and UTs. Critics of the G RM G Bill said that it is passed in the parliament, it would dismantle the demand-driven framework of MGNREGA, remove its universal implementation provision, and centralised the decision making.
During debate on December 17, NDA’s allies JD(U) and LJP (RV) stood in unqualified support of the G RAM G Bill. Another important NDA ally TDP flagged the increased burden on the state government. TDP floor leader Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu said, “When we have to cough up 40% from the State to fund this scheme, we request that the same amount of support that has been extended for the last one and a half years be continued so that the scheme can be implemented well.”
“This is not a ‘Viksit Bharat’ bill but a ‘vexed’ bill,” DMK’s K. Kanimozhi alleged. She pointed out that state government’s share in Central taxes had been shrinking, and financial burden on the states in increasing. The G RAM G Bill splits the expenditure on the rural employment scheme between the Centre and the state at a ratio of 60:40 as opposed to 90:10 under the MGNREGA. Only a few States still retain the 90:10 ratio. She also objected to the Hindi nomenclature of the new legislation.
The word “guarantee” appeared 92 times in the Bill, said TMC MP Mahua Moitra, but if the fine print was read, it did not guarantee anything, since the Centre gets to fix the budget and also notify the areas where the scheme would be implemented. TMC MPs objected to removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme and said it was an insult to the father of the nation and also to Rabindra Nath Tagore who had given the title ‘Mahatma’.
G RAM G Bill was also criticised as anti-women. Congress leader Kodikunnil Suresh said the Bill was anti-women since in state like Kerala, women constitute 90 per cent of the MGNREGA workforce. She said that many of these women are sole breadwinners for their families.
Outside the parliament, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha criticised the G RAM G Bill in a press conference at the Press Club of India held on December 17, where it was announced that a nationwide protest will be launched from December 19 across the country against it.
It should also be recalled that a group of seven chief Ministers, four of them from the BJP or its allies ruled states, had recommended expanding the scope of the MGNREGA in 2020 to include more agriculture related work. Against their recommendation to expand, the Modi government had just brought a bill to replace the MGNREGA, and limited its scope and universality of implementation. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh was convenor of the panel who is now Union Minister of Agriculture handling the G RAM G Bill. Other members were CMs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Sikkim. Additionally, Ramesh Chand, a member of NITI Aayog, was also a member of the sub-group on MGNREGA. The panel had recommended expanding the scope of the MGNREGA to include more agriculture-related work to align with the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, a failed promise of the PM Narendra Modi. (IPA Service)
