On the afternoon of 24 March 2026, hours before the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026—or Trans Bill 2026—was to be debated in the Lok Sabha, a delegation of around 15 trans activists from across the country met the current Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Jothimani Sennimalai were also present at the meeting. The Bill is currently being debated in the Lok Sabha.
Rahul told the delegation that he would “definitely” back their opposition to the Bill since it constituted a “question of your identity,” recalled Vihaan Vee, a trans man and Ambedkarite activist who was present at the meeting. Jothimani, the Congress MP from Karur in Tamil Nadu, and Gowaal Kagada Padavi, the Congress MP from Nandurbar in Maharashtra, would debate the Bill in the Lok Sabha, the activists were told in the meeting. The Congress leaders said that their immediate demand would be to recommend that the Bill be sent to a standing committee for review. “Overall, it was a positive meeting,” Vihaan told queerbeat.
“We have some hope now because the MPs will be speaking on behalf of us to help… send [the bill] to the standing committee… that’s the only hope for now, we feel somehow relieved,” Rachana Mudraboyina, a Hyderabad-based trans rights activist and social worker, told queerbeat. If the Bill were to be passed and sent to the Rajya Sabha for vote, Rachana added, “we will fight that too.”
Rahul posted about the meeting with the delegation of trans activists on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Bill, he wrote, “strips transgender people of their ability to self identify… forces trans people to undergo dehumanizing examinations by a medical board… [and] introduces criminal penalties and surveillance without safeguards.” He concluded by stating that the Congress “unequivocally opposes this Bill.”
Jothimani, who had also met a delegation of trans activists on 18 March, had earlier posted on X that the Trans Bill “represents a clear rollback of hard-won constitutional rights.” The Bill’s imposition of medical screening on trans persons is a “direct violation of privacy and bodily autonomy and can expose transgender persons to invasive and exploitative practices and the hands of bureaucratic officials,” she added. “The State has no place in policing identity.”
Vihaan added that some members of the delegation of trans activists also met Chandrashekhar Azad, co-founder of the Azad Samaj Party and the MP from Nagina in Uttar Pradesh, as well as Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen who represents the Lok Sabha constituency of Hyderabad.
Backlash against social justice ministry
As queerbeat has earlier reported, Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar introduced the Trans Bill in the Lok Sabha on 13 March 2026. The Bill seeks to amend the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and undermines the Supreme Court’s landmark 2014 judgment in NALSA vs Union of India, which affirmed that trans persons have an absolute right to self-identify their gender.
The Bill recommends a restrictive definition of trans persons that excludes transgender men, many trans women, and genderqueer people. It also gives state-appointed medical experts the power to determine whether a trans person’s identity is legally valid. It expands the 2019 Act’s existing list of punishable offences, adding provisions that reinforce stereotypes about trans persons and could likely be misused to criminalise them. Meanwhile, it does nothing to increase the protection of trans persons from violence or harassment, which have been widely criticised as inadequate.
Members of the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP)—a statutory body that advises the government on policies for trans and intersex persons—alleged that they were neither informed nor consulted about these amendments. As queerbeat has reported, officials from the social justice ministry recently conducted a meeting with some NCTP members only after the Bill had been introduced. Officials responded to the NCTP members’ concerns with evasion or condescension, according to the accounts of two members present at the meeting, who were interviewed by queerbeat.
The conduct of the official who chaired the meeting—Yogita Swaroop, senior economic advisor to the social justice ministry—has led to demands that she either apologise or resign. According to the accounts of the NCTP members present at the meeting, Yogita told them that “there was no need to consult you all” on the Bill. She refused to consider their demands to do away with the Bill’s requirement for medical verification, increase protections for trans persons against sexual assault and rape, or introduce support structures for trans persons whose parents ousted them from their homes, the NCTP members said.
On 22 March, the Rachnatmak Congress—the Indian National Congress’s platform for civic engagement—organised a public discussion on the Trans Bill at the Press Club of India in Delhi. Politicians and activists called for Yogita’s resignation or dismissal. Yogita’s behaviour with the NCTP members constituted a “disgraceful display of bureaucratic arrogance and transphobia,” Anish Gawande, a queer politician and national spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), told queerbeat.
“From this platform I want to demand the resignation of Yogita Swaroop… is bureaucrat ko hatao,” (remove this bureaucrat), Anish said during the Rachnatmak Congress’s public discussion to resounding cheers from the audience. “Shame,” chanted the audience when Anish recounted details of Yogita’s exchange with the NCTP members. Congress politician and Rajya Sabha member Renuka Chowdhury, who was also on the panel, added to this chorus and thumped the table emphatically.
Opposition leaders critique Trans Bill
Several opposition parties and leaders have spoken out against the Trans Bill on social media platforms.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) released statements that called for the withdrawal of the Trans Bill 2026. “The proposed amendments, if enacted, will nullify the very limited progress made in transgender rights, welfare, and reverse decades of advocacy for recognition, dignity, self-respect, inclusion, justice and empowerment for the transgender persons,” posted Prakash Ambedkar, VBA President and former Lok Sabha member.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapuram in the Lok Sabha, wrote that he was “deeply concerned” by the Bill, which he noted, was tabled “rather surreptitiously and without proper stakeholder consultation.” The Bill’s “mandatory reporting of gender-affirming surgeries to authorities,” raises serious concerns about an Indian citizen’s fundamental right to privacy, Tharoor cautioned, involving the Supreme Court’s 2017 judgement in KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India that reaffirmed this right.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Lok Sabha MP from Chennai South constituency, met Grace Banu, a trans rights and anti-caste activist, along with two other representatives from the trans community on 23 March. “I assured them that we stand firmly with the community and will strongly oppose this draconian legislation in Parliament,” she posted.
Supriya Sule, working president of NCP(SP) and Lok Sabha MP who represents Baramati in Maharashtra, also met a delegation of trans activists and affirmed her opposition to the Bill.
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien too posted that the Trans Bill, which had been “sneakily introduced in the Parliament” was “draconian.” Other leaders who have publicly opposed the bill include Rajya Sabha members John Brittas of the CPI(M) and Manoj Jha of the Janata Dal (United), who were both present at the public discussion on 22 March; Karti Chidambaram, Congress MP from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu; and Saket Gokhale, a TMC politician and Rajya Sabha MP.