‘20 years of MGNREGA gone in a day’: Rahul on G Ram G Bill

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Modi government of demolishing 20 years of MGNREGA in a single day, and dubbed the new VB-G RAM G legislation as “anti village”.

Noting that the VB-G RAM G Bill is not a “revamp” of MGNREGA, Gandhi said in a post on X, “Last night, the Modi government demolished twenty years of MGNREGA in one day.

“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.” The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also said that 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,” Gandhi alleged.

He said by capping work and creating more ways to deny it, the VB-G RAM G Bill weakens the one instrument the rural poor had.

“We saw what MGNREGA meant during Covid. When the economy shut down and livelihoods collapsed, it kept crores from falling into hunger and debt,” Gandhi claimed.

Meanwhile, the BJP said the VB-G RAM G Bill is not about removing social safety nets but modernising them and asked the Leader of the Opposition to “educate himself” instead of spreading “misinformation” about the scheme.

Hitting back, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said the VB-G RAM G Bill is not about removing social safety nets.

“By combining employment, skills, infrastructure, and accountability, it represents a forward-looking evolution beyond MGNREGA,” Malviya said.