Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other opposition MPs participate in a protest march against the VB-G RAM G Bill.
Credit: PTI Photo
The VB-G RAM G Bill dominated the last day of Parliament's Winter Session on Friday with Congress holding a silent protest and Trinamool Congress sitting on a 12-hour protest that started soon after the draft law was passed in Rajya Sabha.
Opposition MPs continued to voice their concerns over replacing MGNREGA outside Parliament though they did not disrupt or protest proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha wound up the session's business in minutes of assembling.
Outside, Congress MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, staged a silent protest holding Mahatma Gandhi's portrait just in front of 'Makar Dwar' in Parliament House while Trinamool MPs, who were sitting at a distance at the entrance of 'Samvidhan Sadan', sang Rabeendra Sangeet.
The MPs were protesting against "bulldozing" the 'VB - G RAM G Bill', ignoring their requests for sending it to a Parliamentary panel for scrutiny. They were also protesting against the omission of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the Bill's nomenclature.
Trinamool MPs spent the night at the entrance of Samvidhan Sadan, with posters of Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. A banner at the protest read "Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. Gurudev gave the title Mahatma".
"We are sitting in dharna because of the manner in which the MGNREGA Act has been destroyed by the Modi government and it has been replaced by the 'VB-GRG Bill'. It was given to us just five hours before the government introduced it in the House. The Modi government is using bulldozer tactics to push through legislation," Trinamool's Sagarika Ghose said.