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New Delhi: A day after Parliament passed the VB-G RAM G Bill to replace the 20-year-old MGNREGA, the Congress on Friday launched a sharp jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of suffering from what it called “acute acronym-itis.”
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh took to X to share a cartoon lampooning the government’s penchant for acronym-heavy legislation. The cartoon read: “All new A.C.R.O.N.Y.M Mantralaya — Administrative Commission for Renaming Old Schemes: New Yet Meaningless.” “The PM is suffering from a case of acute acronym-itis,” Ramesh wrote alongside the cartoon.
The Congress leader’s swipe came a day after Parliament cleared two bills with striking acronyms — the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill and the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill.
The VB-G RAM G Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha through a voice vote late Thursday, hours after its passage in the Lok Sabha, amid strong opposition protests over the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the existing rural employment guarantee law.
Opposition parties accused the government of diluting MGNREGA by shifting the financial burden to states and eroding the statutory right to work. Several MPs staged a walkout during the Bill’s passage, raised slogans against the government and tore copies of the legislation, prompting Chairman C P Radhakrishnan to warn members against crossing the well of the House.
Later in the night, several Opposition MPs sat on an overnight dharna outside Samvidhan Sadan, protesting what they termed an ideological and economic assault on rural welfare. The Congress has maintained that beyond catchy acronyms, the new law threatens the core spirit of MGNREGA — a charge the government has strongly denied.
