The Congress on Thursday resolved to wage a sustained nationwide fight to restore the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in its original, rightsbased form, launching a sharp attack on the BJP-led Centre for repealing the scheme and replacing it with the VB-G RAM G Act.
Addressing a national convention of MGNREGA workers at Jawahar Bhawan, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the battle to revive the law would be long-drawn and could not be won through protests alone. He accused the Modi government of dismantling a scheme that empowered the poor, Dalits and rural workers, and of undermining the idea of gram swaraj. Kharge alleged that repealing a law named after Mahatma Gandhi was an insult to the Father of the Nation and an attempt to erase his legacy, asserting that the issue would be forcefully raised in Parliament’s Budget session.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said scrapping MGNREGA amounted to an attack on the Constitution, comparing it to demonetisation, the farm laws and the GST rollout. He alleged that the new law centralised power, weakened Panchayati Raj and diverted benefits towards contractors and bureaucracy. Calling for unity among the poor and marginalised, Gandhi said the Modi government “caves in under united pressure”, as seen during the farmers’ protest.
Hundreds of workers from across the country attended the convention, bringing soil from their worksites as a symbol of collective struggle. The Congress also announced a 45-day ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ demanding withdrawal of the new law and restoration of MGNREGA in letter and spirit.
