Belagavi turned into a political battleground on Wednesday as Karnataka’s top Congress leadership, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, staged a massive protest at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. Gathering before the Mahatma Gandhi statue, party workers and lawmakers lashed out at the Centre’s decision to replace the MGNREGA with the new "Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission" (VB-G RAM G).
The name change sparked particularly sharp rhetoric from Shivakumar, who dared the BJP to be consistent in its scrubbing of the Gandhi legacy. "If the Bharatiya Janata Party has the guts, let them remove Mahatma Gandhi’s photo from our currency notes as well," he told reporters, arguing that MGNREGA is a constitutional right that cannot be simply erased through renaming exercises.
Beyond the employment law, the protest served as a platform for the Congress to vent its frustrations over what it calls "vendetta politics". The timing was fueled by a recent Delhi court decision that refused to recognise the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet in the National Herald case involving Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
Siddaramaiah did not hold back, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah of using central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate to intimidate the opposition. He framed the court's ruling as a moral victory that exposed the misuse of power. Shivakumar, who has faced his own legal battles with central agencies, echoed these sentiments, suggesting the court’s decision should serve as a "lesson" to the ED. He questioned why investigative agencies seem to target only opposition figures while ignoring leaders within the ruling party. He also pointed to his own recent run-in with the Delhi Police, claiming they failed to provide him with an FIR copy regarding the National Herald case, which led to his refusal to appear before them.
As the Viksit Bharat Bill makes its way through the Lok Sabha, the Karnataka Congress has made it clear that this isn't just a national debate— they intend to bring the heat to the state assembly floor. For the ruling party in Karnataka, the fight over Gandhi’s name on a rural job scheme has become a proxy for a much larger battle over the country's democratic institutions.
Also read: Karnataka BJP MPs meet PM Modi to discuss governance
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