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New Delhi: Rights activists, opposition leaders including Members of Parliament and hundreds from the LGBTQ community and their allies came together on Sunday (March 23) for a public hearing at the Press Club of India to reject the government’s proposal on what they described as an attempt to “snatch away” hard-won rights, through the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026. All present criticised the provisions of the Bill, and also said that introducing a law with its features, without proper consultation and discussion, was an extremely regressive move.

Sunday’s discussion was organised by the Rachnatmak Congress (formerly known as its outreach cell) and led by Supreme Court advocate Avani Bansal. Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament Professor Manoj Kumar Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Renuka Chowdhury of the Congress party, John Brittas of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were present, as were Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) spokesperson Anish Gawande and activists and social workers Grace Banu, Krishanu, Samar Sharma, Nikunj and Tan.

Demanding a complete rollback of the Bill, Rachnatmak Congress chairperson Sandeep Dikshit said, “This is not about party politics but the politics of rights and justice.”

Professor Jha criticised the Union government’s Bill, saying it was reminiscent of many previous actions, and called it a “bus in reverse gear with no person in the driver’s seat”.

“Every action of this government tells you that they have a regressive mindset. We must understand that this government is not scared of the parliament, it is scared of the streets,” he said, adding that “this bill should be thrown into the dustbin”.

Brittas pointed to how the Bill will “subject an entire community to harassment and trauma bureaucratically”.

Meanwhile, Congress Member of Parliament and former Union minister Renuka Chowdhary said  “it is and will be an uphill battle” to demand the rights of transgender persons again. “We have to fight collectively and cohesively,” she said.

The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on........

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