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The Congress is once again caught in a dilemma – neither can they let Sonia Gandhi down on one of her favourite bills, nor can they earn the anti-Ram tag
Sonia Gandhi with Mallikarjun Kharge during a protest by opposition members at the Parliament House complex. (PTI)
Wearing a mask, Sonia Gandhi made it a point to be present at the Congress-led opposition protest on the government passing the VB-G Gram G bill.
That’s because the original bill, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), which guaranteed ‘rozgar’ and a minimum wage for daily workers, was being reworked and passed.
It was Sonia Gandhi’s idea and desire to have a scheme like NREGA, and this was born out of the NAC, or the National Advisory Council, an important but non-government body of the UPA with Sonia Gandhi as its head. The NAC was often criticised for being the real power centre and pressure group on the Dr Manmohan Singh government.
When the Modi government decided to bring in changes to Gandhi’s bill, it was expected that the Congress would be up in arms. But there were two hurdles in being the lead player in the protests.
Unlike the Congress, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had sensed that this new bill could be given a spin ahead of the Bengal polls. The TMC has always accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its main opponent in the state, of stealing or denying funds to Bengal. Mamata Banerjee has met the PM in the past demanding her share. And in Bengal, the narrative built by the TMC is that BJP is ‘Bangla virodhi’ or anti-Bengal. So the TMC has gone back to doing what Mamata had done best: hit the streets.
In this case, hit the steps of Parliament. Moments after the bill was passed in Rajya Sabha, TMC MPs took out their blankets and decided to spend the night at the steps of the old Parliament building in protest from midnight to noon.
Many Congress leaders were seen being invited by the TMC to join their protest but they skirted it.
The TMC protest has taken the attention and sting away from the Congress protests on the new bill, and its claim to the origin of the bill.
In fact, the second story is of the confusion in the Congress ranks on the protests over the bill.
The BJP has termed the Congress protests as being anti-Ram. While Congress has rejected this by accusing the BJP of diverting attention, the fact is that many in the party were wary of how much to push the protests. After all, the ‘Ram’ in the bill could be the point of attack by the BJP.
The BJP has made this point against the Congress that it’s ‘Ram virodhi’. When the party decided not to attend the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha, not everyone in the party was happy. Those from UP, Bihar were hassled that this could hurt them on the ground.
Said a senior UP leader from the Congress, “We have to hit the ground. I know BJP is needlessly making this an issue, but for those who have to fight on the ground, we can’t afford this narrative that we are objecting to Ram.”
The Congress played the anti-Mahatma card against the BJP to counter the anti-Ram charge of the BJP. But it wants to take no chance.
In a surprise move, Shashi Tharoor was one of the speakers fielded to speak on the topic in Lok Sabha. The Congress and he have not been sharing a good equation of late. So it came as a surprise to see him stand up to speak against, but there is a politics behind it. Shashi Tharoor has the image of a pro-BJP leader. He has written books on Hindu mythology, and so he could be the poster boy for the Congress to counter that the objection to the bill was because the Congress was objecting to Ram.
While for the TMC, hitting the ground on this is no big deal as it wants to show itself as the only champion of daily wagers, the Congress is once again caught in a dilemma. Can’t let Sonia Gandhi down on one of her favourite bills, nor earn the anti-Ram tag.
December 19, 2025, 12:17 IST
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