Modi government destroyed UPA-era's 20-year-old MGNREGA scheme in a single day: Rahul Gandhi

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 was passed by the Rajya Sabha late on December 18 night and will now be sent to the President for approval. The Lok Sabha had earlier approved the Bill which will replace the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a flagship welfare law that assures 100 days of guaranteed employment to rural households.

 Opposition parties, who have been opposing this Bill from the beginning, have once again attacked the Modi government. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, wrote on X: "Last night, the Modi government destroyed 20 years of MGNREGA in a single day."

It is not a 'revamp' of MGNREGA

Rahul Gandhi said that VB-G RAM G is not a 'revamp' of MGNREGA. It eliminates the rights-based and demand-driven employment guarantee and transforms it into a limited quota scheme controlled from Delhi. Its very structure is against the states and villages. MGNREGA gave rural labourers bargaining power. When people had real alternatives, exploitation and forced migration decreased, wages increased and working conditions improved. Rural infrastructure was also built and revitalised. This is the power that this government wants to break.

Rahul Gandhi said that by setting limits on work and creating new ways to deny work, VB-G RAM G weakens the only tool that the rural poor had. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the importance of MGNREGA. When the economy stalled and livelihoods were destroyed, this scheme saved millions of people from hunger and debt. Women benefited the most from this scheme. Year after year, women have contributed more than half of the total workdays,” he wrote.

When an employment scheme is limited through rationing, women, Dalits, tribals, landless laborers and the poorest OBC communities are the first to be excluded. Rahul Gandhi said that the Bill was forcibly passed in Parliament without proper scrutiny. The opposition demand for the Bill to be sent to a standing committee was rejected. A law that reshapes the rural social contract and affects millions of workers should never be passed without a serious committee review, expert consultation and public hearings. Prime Minister Modi's intentions are clear: to weaken labor, to break the bargaining power of rural India, especially Dalits, OBCs, and tribals, to centralize power, and then present it as 'reform', he said.

Rahul Gandhi said that MGNREGA is one of the world's most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment schemes. “We will not allow this government to destroy the last line of defense for the rural poor. We will stand with the workers, panchayats, and states, form a nationwide front to defeat this move, and fight until this law is repealed,” he wrote.

Direct impact on the poor

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi said, "This Bill is going to be very detrimental to very poor people because the original MGNREGA scheme, as it was designed–where the central government provided 90% of the funding–was the backbone of the rural economy and the biggest support for very poor people who found it difficult to get employment. For 20 years, it has been one of the few good schemes that has worked and helped poor people, especially those who have nothing. Now, in this new form of the Bill, when you reduce so much of the allocation from the central government's funds, the state governments will not be able to bear the burden. This means that the scheme will collapse, and this will be very damaging."

‘Artificial distinction’

Congress MP Manish Tewari said, "It is very unfortunate that the name of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation who led the country's freedom movement, has been removed from MGNREGA. An artificial distinction has been created between Lord Ram and Mahatma Gandhi; nothing could be more unfortunate and reprehensible than this."

On the VB-G RAM G Bill 2025 passed by Parliament, SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav said, "This Bill is the government's conspiracy to end MGNREGA."