NEW DELHI: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday said the “demolition” of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) would have catastrophic consequences for crores of people in rural India, and called for unity to safeguard rights that protect citizens.
In an editorial published in The Hindu titled “The bulldozed demolition of MGNREGA”, Gandhi described the repeal of the rural employment law as a collective failure, a day after President Droupadi Murmu gave assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which replaces MGNREGA and provides for up to 125 days of wage employment.
Gandhi said MGNREGA had realised Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Sarvodaya and translated the constitutional right to work into law. She alleged that the Modi government abolished the scheme without adequate discussion, consultation or respect for parliamentary processes and Centre–state relations.
“The removal of the Mahatma’s name was only the tip of the iceberg. The very structure of MGNREGA, which made it impactful, has been annihilated,” she wrote, describing the new law as “nothing but a set of bureaucratic provisions”.
According to Gandhi, the new legislation restricts the scheme’s ambit at the Centre’s discretion and replaces uncapped funding with predetermined budgetary allocations, effectively capping employment days across states and ending the year-round demand-driven guarantee of work.
She said one of MGNREGA’s major achievements was increasing the bargaining power of the landless rural poor, which led to higher agricultural wages. “This bargaining power will be eroded under the new law,” she said, accusing the government of attempting to suppress wage growth at a time when employment in agriculture has increased for the first time since Independence.
Gandhi also criticised the cost-sharing structure under the new law—60:40 between Centre and states, 90:10 for northeastern and Himalayan states, and full central funding for Union territories without legislatures—saying it would further strain state finances and discourage work generation.
She rejected the government’s claim that the employment guarantee has been enhanced from 100 to 125 days, arguing that the Modi government’s past record showed a “death by a thousand cuts” approach to MGNREGA through stagnant budgets, technology-related exclusions and delayed wage payments.
Gandhi said the repeal of MGNREGA should be viewed as part of a broader assault on the Constitution’s rights-based framework, alleging that the Right to Vote, Right to Information, Right to Education, Forest Rights Act, and land acquisition law had all been weakened. She also warned that the National Food Security Act could be next.
“It is imperative, now more than ever, to unite and safeguard the rights that protect us all,” she said.
