Congress to launch MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan

The Congress will launch a nationwide campaign against the repeal of the UPA-era rural employment legislation MGNREGA on January 5, similar to the pushback against the three farm laws, which eventually forced the Narendra Modi Government to rollback its decision, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.

At a press conference here on Saturday after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Kharge said the party will lead the ‘MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan’ across the country.

The VB-G RAM G Bill, replacing the 20-year-old MGNREGA, was passed in Parliament during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament amid vociferous protests by the opposition. The new law has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers. He said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was not just a scheme, but the ‘Right to Work’ given by the Constitution. “People are angry over the repeal of MGNREGA. The Government will have to face the consequences,” he said.

“At the CWC meeting, we took an oath that a campaign would be launched with MGNREGA as its focal point. The Congress would take the lead and start a “MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan” from January 5,” Kharge said.

He said party leaders took an oath of protecting MGNREGA at any cost.

“We will fight unitedly for the rights of rural labourers to dignity, employment, wages and timely payment and will protect the rights of demand-based employment and gram sabha,” he said.

Kharge said the Congress would democratically oppose the “conspiracy” to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s name from MGNREGA and to “convert the rights of workers into charity”.

Referring to the cost-sharing clause between the Centre and state governments under the VB-G RAM G Act, the Congress chief said states will have an additional expenditure burden and termed it a one-sided decision taken without consultation.

“This law has been brought to crush the poor. We will fight against it on the streets and in Parliament,” he said.

Earlier, speaking at the CWC meeting, Kharge said repealing MGNREGA is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi.

The Congress chief cited precedents, including the 2015 amendments to India’s land acquisition law that were effectively rolled back. He also quoted the three farm laws, which were first brought in as ordinances and then passed in Parliament amid opposition protests, but had to be repealed following the 2020-21 farmers’ protests.

“Rahul Gandhi had predicted long ago that the farm laws would be taken back. Now, he has said that the MGNREGA would have to be brought back,” Kharge said, “It is our collective responsibility to make concrete plans on MGNREGA and launch a nationwide public campaign.”

He said people are looking at the Congress with hope to act in this “difficult situation”.

On the SIR exercise, the Congress leader said it is a serious issue, and “a well-planned conspiracy” to limit people’s democratic rights.

“Rahul ji has presented several examples and facts on ‘vote chori’ (vote theft). There is a collusion between the BJP and the Election Commission.

“We have to ensure that the names of our voters are not deleted. We also need to ensure that the names of Dalits, tribals, extremely backward classes and minorities are not deleted or transferred to other booths. For this, our booth-level agents will have to go house to house,” he said. Kharge called on party members to start working in states that will go to the polls in 2027.

The Congress chief also condemned the attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, and said that the entire nation is concerned over it.

He added that the attacks on Christmas Day celebrations by “organisations linked to the BJP and RSS” have disturbed communal harmony and tainted India’s image globally.

The CWC meeting, held for the first time since the Mahagathbandhan’s defeat in the Bihar Assembly polls, is being attended by top party leaders, including former party president Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and party general secretary K C Venugopal, among others. Party leader Shashi Tharoor was also present at the meeting.

Ahead of the meeting, top party leaders paid tribute to former prime minister Manmohan Singh. They also observed a two-minute silence to pay respects to late Congress leaders Shivraj Patil and Sriprakash Jaiswal.

Rahul slams Modi over MGNREGA

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “single-handedly destroying” MGNREGA without consulting his Cabinet or the states and without studying the matter, terming it an attack on the democratic structure that will ruin the rural economy. Addressing a press conference after the crucial CWC meeting, he targeted the BJP-led NDA Government over the VB-G RAM G Act, alleging that the PM carried out a devastating attack on states and the poor, “much like demonetization.”

He said the Congress has vowed that it would resist the government’s action and expressed confidence that the entire opposition would be aligned with it.

“The prime minister single-handedly destroyed MGNREGA without asking his Cabinet, and without studying the matter,” the former Congress chief said.

“We are going to resist it, we are going to fight it, and I am confident that the entire opposition will stand united against this action,” he said, referring to the Congress’s ‘MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan’ that it plans to launch nationwide on January 5.

In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi later said, “There is only one purpose behind the end of MGNREGA -- to erase the right to employment for the poor, to steal economic and political power from the states, and to hand over that money to billionaire friends.”

“The entire country will bear the cost of the whims of the ‘lone ranger’ Prime Minister. Jobs will end, and the rural economy will collapse. When villages weaken, the country will weaken,” he also said.

Claiming that the UPA-era MGNREGA was not just a work programme, but a development and conceptual framework appreciated around the world, Gandhi claimed that its repeal was an attack on a rights-based approach and on the country’s federal structure.

“It is a devastating attack on states and the poor people, carried out by the prime minister single-handedly, much like demonetisation. The PM single-handedly destroyed MGNREGA without asking his Cabinet, without studying the matter,” he said at the press conference.

“The MGNREGA, apart from being a rights-based programme, also strengthened our panchayats. It allowed political action in the panchayats, it injected money into the panchayats, and it allowed the decision-making power at the panchayat level,” Gandhi explained.

He termed the VB-G RAM G legislation on rural employment an “attack on the democratic structure, on the third tier of Government and our basic architecture of our country”.

“This is an attack on the states of India because they are simply taking away money that belongs to the states and decision-making power that belongs to the states. It is an attack on the infrastructure of the states because MGNREGA was used to build infrastructure,” Gandhi claimed.

The Congress leader linked the decision to scrap MGNREGA to the decimation of Indian labour, saying that MGNREGA guaranteed a minimum floor below which Indian labour could not fall.

“It is going to cause tremendous pain to the weaker sections, to Adivasis, to Dalits, to OBCs, to poor general castes, and to minorities. At the same time, it is going to benefit Mr Adani in full measure. That is the purpose of this exercise: to take money away from poor people and hand it to people like Mr Adani,” Gandhi alleged.

The VB-G RAM G Bill, replacing the 20-year-old MGNREGA, was passed in Parliament during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament amid vociferous protests by the opposition. The new act has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.