December 18, 2025
Derek O’Brien’s speech on The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB – G RAM G (विकवित भारत – जी राम जी) Bill, 2025
Rush, 14th September 2020 and 20th September, 2020. On 14th September, Bill introduced in Lok Sabha and passed on 17th September! On 20th September, it was passed in Rajya Sabha. Six days – rush, rush and rush! Opposition wanted the Bill to go to the Select Committee. Hell with the Opposition, pass the Bill! These were the Farm Bills. Eight MPs sat outside for 24 hours. The Farm Bills! This Government of Mr. Modi – Shah rushed the Farm Bills. What happened after that? Sir, 750 people were killed. Farmers protested for a year and the same Government quietly came, chupke-chupke, with no discussion and repealed the Bills. It is this Government, they are rushing the Bills tonight. On 29th November, 2021, the Farm Bills were repealed. First, I said “rush”, then I said “repeal”. They would do the same thing again. But before that, I challenge them to face the referendum. Do not wait for two years. Come in the Monsoon Session. You have brought this Bill. Rush! And, then, you repeal that Bill! Now, you will come in the Budget Session. You are going to elections in three States where you have non-BJP Governments–DMK in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and in Bengal. Come and fight the elections in these three States; lose all three States. Come back, I challenge you and you resign as Prime Minister. Out you go, because this is a referendum on these Bills. Come! You will lose. You will not lose in Bengal, you will be annihilated in Bengal. What did you do yesterday and at 1.07 p.m., today? You passed the Bill in Lok Sabha. At 1.11 p.m., today, something happened! This Government stopped the MGNREGA Scheme in Bengal. Bengal started its own Scheme, ‘Karmashree’, to provide employment to job-card holders. This year, every job-card holder got 75 days of work. Next year, it will be 100 days of work. Today, at 1.09 p.m., the Chief Minister of West Bengal changed the name of her Scheme, ‘Karmashree’ and named it, the Mahatma Gandhi Karmashree Scheme. What is the content of this Bill without going into Clause-by-Clause? …(Interruptions)… Please listen. The scheme has got a name. Listen to a speech that you want to debate till 2’o clock, 4’o clock and 6’o clock. No opposition MP has withdrawn from the debate. BJP has withdrawn 15 speakers from the debate! The Bill comes from a feudal mindset. Their mindset is feudal. MGNREGA was a right. It was a right. Now, they want to dish it out as a doll before polls. It is a right and it is not a gift. It is not a gift. It is not workers dependent on the benevolence of the State. No; Sir. What they are doing in this new Bill? It is killing MGNREGA; forget Mahatma Bill. Listen to this! They are going to be the biggest losers. For the last five years, over 50 per cent of the work is done by women. In many States, women comprise 90 per cent of the workforce. This supplements their household income to keep their children in school. It is because the labour market usually prefers men. MGNREGA was the first time that started pay parity for women. Then, let us build on the struggles and sacrifices. of theirs. The switch-off Clause, that is also the feudal mindset. Union will make all the decisions. The State will budget the scheme. It will be implemented in a State, but the State has no right to decide. This is feudal. Blackout for two months! Let the hon. Minister tell me whether he has any data to prove that those two months, when the workers are not available, will not get a chance. This strengthens the workers’ rights to ask for better wages. It rationalizes the labour market. About MGNREGA, I am hearing from yesterday that it was a UPA legislation; it was a Congress legislation. No; Sir. It was a legislation that came out of the people’s movement. I am sitting here and I am telling you with conviction. It came out of the people’s movement. Let us dwell a little on federalism and how this legislation will hurt federalism. The irony is that the current hon. Prime Minister and the hon. Minister who is moving this Bill, between them they have spent 29 years as Chief Ministers of their States. 29 years! You talk about transparency! If it is transparency, then, why no MGNREGA funds from March 9, 2022? If you are talking about transparency, prior to the suspension of the funds there, 1.37 crore rural households were receiving employment. Fifty-nine lakh registered workers in Bengal were receiving employment. Sir, Rs.52,000 crores is owed to Bengal. These are the real issues. And what is the Opposition asking for? We are asking for reasonable… Don’t pass this Bill like this, in the dead of night; Manipur, 4.00 a.m., now, 2.00 a.m.; nocturnal devious games. We are very reasonable. Take this Bill to a Select Committee. Let the Select Committee come back by 15th of January and report. This is Bill’s scrutiny. Sir, my time. … Thank you, Sir. Give me some extra time. This is literature, “On a cold evening in January, 1948, religious hatred claimed the life of a pleader for love. On 30th January, the assassin, Nathuram Godse pumped three fatal bullets into Gandhi as the Mahatma walked towards the prayer meeting at Birla House in New Delhi.” Sir, I cannot re-write history. “The hate he had battled all his life, proved too powerful for even a Mahatma.” I did not write those words in my book. My accomplished colleague, Shrimati Sagarika Ghose wrote in her book. Sir, this Bill kills the original objective of MGNREGA. If you ask anybody to sum up MGNREGA in three words, they are, ‘guarantee’, — this Bill washes it away– ‘livelihood’, –this Bill washes it away– ‘security’ — this Bill washes it away. I was going back to that fateful evening of 1948.
