Congress, INDIA bloc MPs protest in Parliament over MGNREGA renaming, invoke Gandhi legacy

Congress leaders and several Opposition MPs on Thursday staged a protest inside the Parliament complex against the reported move to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

The protest march began from the Gandhi statue and proceeded to the Makar Dwar, with MPs raising slogans and holding placards asserting that Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy would not be undermined. Posters carried by the protesters read, “Will not tolerate the disrespect of Mahatma Gandhi” and its Hindi equivalent, “Mahatma Gandhi ka apman nahi sahenge, nahi sahenge”.

The demonstration was led by Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, along with MPs from the INDIA bloc. The leaders accused the government of erasing Gandhi’s name from a flagship rural employment law that, they said, transformed village economies and provided a statutory right to work for millions.

Opposition MPs said the renaming amounted to an ideological assault on both Mahatma Gandhi and the constitutional guarantee of social welfare.

”The Modi government has not only insulted the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, but has also crushed the Right to Work, which brought about socio-economic changes in India’s villages. Against this tyranny of the ruling dictatorial government, we will struggle from Parliament to the streets,” Kharge said in a post on X.

मोदी सरकार ने केवल राष्ट्रपिता महात्मा गाँधी का अपमान भर नहीं किया है बल्कि भारत के गाँवों में सामाजिक आर्थिक बदलाव लाने वाले काम के अधिकार को कुचलने का काम किया है।

सत्ताधारी तानाशाह सरकार के इस ज़ुल्म के खिलाफ़, हम संसद से सड़क तक संघर्ष करेंगे। pic.twitter.com/8Hrizqkaev

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) December 18, 2025