Modi wants to bring back 'Maharaja' era: Rahul Gandhi attacks move to scrap MGNREGA

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi government of attempting to dismantle the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to centralise power and weaken the rights of rural workers, alleging that the move would push the country back to an era where authority and wealth were concentrated in the hands of a few.

Sharing a video of his recent interaction with MGNREGA workers on X, Gandhi said the government’s intent behind scrapping the employment guarantee law was to strip labourers of their ability to negotiate wages, undermine the powers of panchayats, and erode the authority of states.

In a post written in Hindi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, “What is the motive behind Modi ji’s intent to destroy MGNREGA? To take away workers’ right to negotiate daily wages, to tie the hands of panchayats by stripping them of power, to weaken states and centralise all authority in Delhi, and to push the country back to the era of kings and maharajas, where power and wealth were concentrated in the hands of a few.”

Gandhi said workers who once hailed MGNREGA as a life-changing law were now expressing fear and anger over the government’s proposed changes.

“Minimum wages, a guarantee of work throughout the year, and the right to work with dignity and freedom — these are what millions of labourers across the country once declared in one voice: ‘MGNREGA changed our lives’. It took decades to secure these rights,” he said.

“Today, those same labourers are saying that the Modi government is enslaving workers,” Gandhi added.

In the video shared by the Congress leader, an MGNREGA worker is heard telling him that the present dispensation was “enslaving labourers” by weakening a law that provided livelihood security to rural households.

Gandhi alleged that the government was intent on destroying what he described as a “transformative” initiative that had provided employment, income support and social security to millions in rural India.

The Congress has been opposing the replacement of MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-GRAM (Gramin), and has demanded that the Centre withdraw the new law and fully restore the UPA-era employment guarantee scheme.

On January 10, the party launched a 45-day nationwide agitation titled ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’, protesting what it calls the repeal of MGNREGA and warning that the new framework would dilute legal entitlements for rural workers.