Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Modi government after Parliament passed a bill replacing the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission Gramin (VB–G RAM G).
Calling the new scheme “anti-state and anti-village,” Gandhi alleged that the Centre had dismantled a rights-based, demand-driven employment guarantee that had empowered rural workers for nearly two decades. He accused the government of weakening the bargaining power of rural labourers by centralising control and rationing employment opportunities.
“Last night, the Modi government demolished twenty years of MGNREGA in one day. VB–G RAM G isn’t a ‘revamp’ of MGNREGA. It demolishes the rights-based, demand-driven guarantee and turns it into a rationed scheme which is controlled from Delhi. It is anti-state and anti-village by design,” Gandhi said in a post on X.
Highlighting the impact of MGNREGA, the Congress leader said the scheme had significantly reduced exploitation and distress migration by giving rural workers real choices. According to him, it led to higher wages, improved working conditions and the creation and revival of rural infrastructure across the country.
“MGNREGA gave the rural worker bargaining power. With real options, exploitation and distress migration fell, wages increased, working conditions improved, all while building and reviving rural infrastructure. That leverage is precisely what this government wants to break,” he added.
Gandhi also underscored the crucial role played by MGNREGA during the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting that it saved crores of people from hunger and falling into debt when livelihoods collapsed. He said the scheme had particularly benefited women, Dalits, Adivasis and poor OBC communities.
“We saw what MGNREGA meant during COVID. When the economy shut down and livelihoods collapsed, it kept crores from falling into hunger and debt. And it helped women the most—year after year, women have contributed more than half the person-days,” he said.
Warning that the new scheme would disproportionately hurt the most vulnerable, Gandhi argued that capping work and adding mechanisms to deny employment would push out women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless workers and the poorest OBC communities first.
The Lok Sabha LoP also criticised the manner in which the legislation was passed, alleging that it was “bulldozed” through Parliament without adequate debate or scrutiny. He said the Opposition’s demand to refer the Bill to a Standing Committee was rejected.
“To top it all, this law was bulldozed through Parliament without proper scrutiny. The opposition demand to send the bill to a Standing Committee was rejected,” Gandhi said, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of seeking to “weaken labour, weaken the leverage of rural India, centralise power, and then sell slogans as ‘reform’.”
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission Gramin (VB–G RAM G) Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote at midnight. It had cleared the Lok Sabha on Thursday afternoon amid protests and a walkout by Opposition parties, marking a significant shift in the Centre’s rural employment policy and triggering a fresh political confrontation.
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