New Delhi: After a sudden introduction, a late night debate in which members were asked to speak within three minutes, the Lok Sabha on Thursday (December 18) passed in a tearing hurry, the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which seeks to repeal the United Progressive Alliance-era (UPA-era) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the world’s largest such guarantee for 100 days of work in rural areas.The Bill was passed through a voice vote amid a huge uproar by opposition parties who were in the well of the House, and tore papers in protest. Amid the din, speaker Om Birla hurriedly called for a voice vote, passed the Bill within minutes and adjourned the house for the day.The discussion on the Bill only started on Wednesday evening after 5.30pm, and lasted well into the night till 1.30 am as the House remained largely empty. Members were told by chairperson Jagadambika Pal at about midnight that since a lot of names had been submitted for the discussion, speakers were to keep their statements within three minutes. Earlier on Tuesday, the Bill was tabled despite objections from opposition parties who said that the proposed legislation had been brought without prior consultation, the government pushed ahead with its introduction.While the discussion had lasted late into the night on Wednesday, Birla said that Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will only give his reply the next morning. On Thursday, Congress MP K.C. Venugopal said that the opposition wants the Bill to be sent to a standing committee, but Birla refused and said that over eight hours of discussion had already been conducted till late last night. As opposition parties erupted in protest and went to the well of the House, the Bill was passed through a voice vote amid the din. Opposition members tore up papers in protest, but Birla went ahead and called for the Bill to be passed. Opposition members who had submitted amendments, were not given an opportunity as they were not in their seats. Promptly after the Bill was passed within minutes, the House was adjourned for the day.‘Parliamentary decorum torn to shreds’Addressing a press conference later on Thursday afternoon, Chouhan made no mention of how the Bill was brought without any prior notice or consultation, and then passed in a tearing hurry. Instead he accused the opposition of insulting Gandhi, tearing parliamentary decorum into shreds, and turning democracy into mob rule.“The behaviour of the opposition Congress and the INDI alliance has been a blot on our democracy, and parliamentary decorum has been torn to shreds. They have turned democracy into mob rule and hooliganism,” he said.Also read: As VB-G RAM G Bill is Railroaded Through Parliament, MGNREGA’s Historical Context is Forgotten“Yesterday the discussion continued till 1.30 am and I listened to 98 members who spoke in the debate. I have said earlier that parliament is the temple of democracy because debate is the spirit of democracy. I listened to everything the opposition said and I had to give my reply today. But the opposition tore up copies of the bill and got up on the tables and chairs. Is this not an insult to Bapu’s principles?”Opposition raises financial burden on states, removing Gandhi’s nameEarlier on Thursday, before House proceedings started, opposition members marched in protest at the parliament premises holding banners of Gandhi. During the discussion on Wednesday, opposition members criticised the Bill for its nomenclature, in which Gandhi’s name was being removed, and for turning a legal right to work guarantee and a demand driven scheme into a supply driven scheme, and placing the financial burden of the scheme on the states by changing the cost sharing arrangement from 90:10 to 60:40.“Suddenly with no consultation, the government has decided to repeal MGNREGA. This is not amending, this is repealing it,” said Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra.Moitra accused the Modi government of insulting Gandhi, and said that the title Mahatma was given to him by Rabindranath Tagore, and both Gandhi and Tagore now stand insulted. Moitra also said that prior to the Union government stopping MGNREGA funds to West Bengal, the state was the top performer in the scheme.“Not a single element of the legal right to work has been retained from the original Act. The original MGNREGA was 100% Union government funded, it was demand driven, 100 days of work no matter where the worker was. The government has used the word guarantee 92 times. The new Bill however provides no guarantee at all,” she said.Moitra said that the new 60:40 financial arrangement of the Bill was a “death knell” for states.“A demand driven scheme has been altered into allocation based scheme, which the central government can alter at whim. This takes us back to pre MGNREGA days like Jawahar Rozgar Yojana which would give only about 10 days of the work,” she said.Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) MP N.K. Premachandran said that the intent of the government was to dismantle the landmark legislation brought by the UPA government and convert “a statutory right is being converted into a centrally sponsored scheme.”“What prompted the government to bring this Bill by removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi from the nomenclature as well as structurally changing the scheme by which the state governments are burdened by more finance and the spirit of the scheme is lost,” he said.“I feel that you have been prompted to do it after the unexpected victory in Bihar elections. As a part of political arrogance this Bill is being brought to this house. This is the end of the government being led by Narendra Modi because this is anti-poor, and no government will remove the name of the father of the nation from a Bill.” Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanmozhi accused the government of imposing Hindi on south Indian states and asked whether any Bill would be named in any South Indian language.“This Bill fails to protect human dignity, takes away the legal right to work,” she said.“This is not a Viksit Bharat, it is a vexed Bharat because in every Bill you try to impose Hindi and Sanskrit on people of south India. Why don’t you name one Bill in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi? Not a single one, only Hindi or Sanskrit.”Accusing the government of centralising power, Kanimozhi said that the scheme has been turned into an allocation based one. “You should understand federalism is sharing power, not hoarding power,” she said.Premachandran also said that the minister should clarify that if the state governments cannot provide 40% of its share, “how will the union government guarantee 125 days of work?”Congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka said that the Modi government had been making concerted efforts to kill the scheme over the last decade.“Of the 86,000 crores that was allocated as MGNREGA in the budget, 27% was unpaid liabilities of wages and materials. Now the question is, why are they bringing this Bill? Was it the Supreme Court order that said that the scheme cannot be kept in cold storage? They want to subvert the Supreme Court decision,” he said.Ulaka who had headed the parliamentary standing committee that had examined MGNREGA said that has been systematically weakened, budgets were cut, funds were released late, unemployment allowance were not given, demand was supressed through job card deletions and arbitrary delays to approvals, and through Aadhaar based payment systems and e-KYC mandates.Also read: Testing the Waters: With Bill to Replace MGNREGA, the Right-Wing Moves Towards the Final Obliteration“Those who were working under MGNREGA were already at the mercy of Ram. Whether the app will work or not, will job cards be created, if created will the work come, if work comes, will payment come. They were at the mercy of Ram. The minister should clarify whether the name G Ram G is in the name of Lord Ram or Nathuram Godse?” All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that the government wants to “seize every right and run the government through a dictatorship.”“The 60 days blackout of the scheme will affect women who won’t have work. This law will benefit landowners who will celebrate and the poor will live at their mercy. The 90% central share has been struck down to 60%, with the only motive to finish off the law. Which state has this much money? The government does not want to end poverty,” he said.While BJP’s key allies like the Janata Dal(United) (JD(U)), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJP(RV)) supported the Bill and said that the law needed to be changed as India in 2025 is not the same as India in 2006, the YSRCP opposed the Bill.“Knowing very well the financial situation of the states, any government can understand that this proposed Bill will make MGNREGA defunct. What was once guaranteed employment will make it unguaranteed employment due to fiscal stress of state governments,” said YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy.Chouhan deflects criticism to attack Congress, GandhisIn his reply, however, Chouhan deflected the concerns raised by the opposition members to previous Congress and UPA governments.“NGREGA was not named after Gandhi initially. Before the 2009 elections, they remembered Bapu and that is when Mahatma Gandhi’s name was added. If anyone has implemented the scheme properly it was Narendra Modi. Congress does drama but during UPA from 2006-14 only 1660cr work days were generated while under the Modi government 3210 crore work days were generated,” he said.Chouhan also defended the change in name and said that the Congress had 52 schemes after the Gandhi family, 55 educational institutions after Rajiv Gandhi, 21 after Indira Gandhi and 22 after Jawaharlal Nehru. He then accused the Congress of killing Gandhian principles and ideals without providing any reasons for why the government was removing Gandhi’s name from the new law, or why the spirit of the legislation was being changed.“Unlike the Congress we follow Gandhi. In 1948 Gandhi had said that after independence Congress should be disbanded but Nehru refused to so to stick to power and killed Gandhi’s principles,” he said. “They also killed Gandhi’s principles when they partitioned the country, when they gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency. By plunging the country into corruption, they murdered Gandhi. How many times will they kill Gandhian principles?”