‘Black law’ assault on MGNREGA will be resisted, ready to fight, says Sonia Gandhi

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has accused the Narendra Modi government of systematically weakening the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), calling recent changes to the scheme an assault on the rights of rural workers, farmers and the poorest sections of society.

Recalling the passage of the legislation nearly two decades ago, Sonia Gandhi said MGNREGA was enacted by Parliament through consensus during the tenure of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, describing it as a transformative step that provided a legal right to employment and dignity to crores of rural families. She said the scheme played a critical role in curbing distress migration by enabling people to earn livelihoods within their own villages.

According to Sonia Gandhi, MGNREGA empowered gram panchayats and translated the vision of Mahatma Gandhi’s Gram Swaraj into reality by placing development decisions closer to local communities. She added that the programme proved to be a lifeline for the poor during the Covid-19 pandemic, when rural distress was at its peak.

However, she alleged that over the past 11 years, the Modi government has consistently ignored the interests of the unemployed and the rural poor, making repeated attempts to undermine the scheme. Expressing “deep regret”, Sonia Gandhi said the government had recently “run a bulldozer” over MGNREGA by removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name and altering the structure and functioning of the programme without discussion, consultation or taking the opposition into confidence.

She warned that decision-making on employment allocation would now be centralised, with officials in Delhi determining who gets work, where and in what manner, disconnecting the scheme from local realities on the ground.

Emphasising that MGNREGA was never a party-specific initiative but one rooted in national and public interest, Sonia Gandhi said diluting the law amounted to an attack on the livelihoods of crores of farmers, labourers and landless poor across rural India. She asserted that the Congress, which played a key role in conceptualising and implementing the programme, would strongly resist any move that weakens it.

“Twenty years ago, I fought for the right to employment for our poorest brothers and sisters. Today, I remain committed to fighting against this black law,” Sonia Gandhi said, adding that Congress leaders and workers across the country stand united in opposing the changes.

Concluding her statement, she reaffirmed the party’s resolve to defend the interests of rural India, saying the struggle to protect the employment guarantee would continue.