NEW DELHI: Congress on Tuesday protested both inside and outside Parliament against the “anti-people” G RAM G bill, with its MP Shashi Tharoor – who the party has accused of being soft on BJP – taking a dig at the governmentt in Lok Sabha by recalling an old Bollywood number – “dekho o deewano (tum) ye kaam na karo, Ram ka naam badnam na karo”.Sounding the bugle of “sansad to sadak” fight against the rural employment gurantee bill, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi alleged that PM Narendra Modi wants to target the secure livelihood of the poor after destroying the future of India’s youth through massive unemployment. He said saddling states with 40% financial burden will destroy the foundational principles of the job guarantee scheme – right to work, full central support for wages and 3/4th for material costs and autonomy to villages to decide development works.The prime minister has “deep dislike” for the rights of the poor, and MGNREGA is a living embodiment of Gandhi’s vision of ‘gram swaraj’ as a lifeline for crores of rural Indians, Rahul said. “To remove the name of Mahatma Gandhi is to strip the bill of its moral compass and historical legitimacy,” Tharoor said in Lok Sabha.
