NEW DELHI: With the government passing the VB G RAM G Bill to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Congress is all set to hold a detailed deliberation in the party’s apex body meeting scheduled on December 27 on the Centre’s initiative to erase the Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and a scheme that brought out crores of people out of poverty.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), party’s highest decision-making body is all set to meet on December 27 with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to chair it. While opposing the VB G RAM G Bill in Rajya Sabha, Congress chief Kharge had said, “I wish to raise several concerns regarding the Bill introduced by the government to change the name and structure of MGNREGA.” He said that between 2004 and 2014, this Parliament enacted several historic laws to empower the citizens of India.
Kharge highlighted that key schemes and Bills included the Right to Information (RTI), Right to Education (RTE), Forest Rights Act, National Food Security Act, Land Acquisition Act, and MGNREGA. He said that the Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states: “The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want.”
The Congress chief also stated that the MGNREGA embodies this constitutional spirit and transforms the “Right to Work” into a statutory right. Targeting the government Kharge said, “In 11 years, the Modi government has failed to create even one such law; instead, it is systematically weakening or dismantling laws that empower the people. This attack on MGNREGA is part of that pattern.”
He said, “This Bill, brought with ill intentions, will prove to be as disastrous as the three ‘black’ farm laws, demonetization, and the unplanned lockdown. This law will trap the most vulnerable sections back into the cycle of hunger and poverty,” he claimed. Kharge also stated that it’s not just a name change as its the weakening of a scheme. “This is not merely about changing a name; it is the “murder” of the world’s largest employment scheme. Over the last 11 years, the government has strangled MGNREGA through constant budget cuts, withholding payments to states, deleting names of genuine workers, creating administrative hurdles,” he claimed.
Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement made on February 27, 2015, in Parliament, Kharge said, “My political wisdom tells me not to stop MGNREGA. MGNREGA is a living monument of your (Congress) failures. Even 60 years after independence, people have to be sent to dig ditches. I will keep it alive so the world can see what Congress did.”
Hitting at the government Kharge continued, “Today, you are not just changing the name you are attacking the livelihoods of the poor. On December 16, 2025, in a Lok Sabha response, you admitted MGNREGA has been successful. A NITI Aayog study found it created durable assets, improved water security, soil conservation, and land productivity. During the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, when migrant workers returned to villages on foot, MGNREGA was their lifeline.”
Kharge also alleged that by attacking the “Right to Work,” the government is attacking Gandhi’s mission to wipe every tear from every eye. Kharge said if the Bill is passed, Congress will protest outside Parliament and force the government to take it back. Congress sources said that the grand old party during the CWC will deliberate on how there are fundamental flaws in the new scheme as it will highlight that how it will end of Demand-Driven Model as employment will no longer be based on “demand.”
Previously, work had to be provided within 15 days of a request. The sources also said that how seasonal restrictions will be put there as no work will be provided for 60 days during peak harvest or sowing seasons and how centralization of the new scheme is being done. The sources explained that the Centre will now decide where and how much to spend, marginalizing Panchayats. Thus, the party leaders will deliberate that how this is a direct attack on India’s federal structure, the source said.
Saying that the new scheme will put financial burden on states, he explained that the Centre has reduced its share from 90 per cent to 60 per cent, shifting a 40 per cent burden onto states, many of which lack the resources. The Congress leaders will also deliberate on why 150 Days and Rs 400 wages are necessary with the 25th report of the Standing Committee recommending 150 days of employment. The sources also said that the party will decide on taking nationwide protest to villages.
