New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday announced the launch of the nationwide MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan from January 5 and said it would also hold at least four rallies to target the government over what it called the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name, describing it as an insult to the Father of the Nation.
The announcement was made by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at a joint press conference with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision making body. The meeting went on for over four hours and was attended by 91 party leaders.
Kharge said that during the CWC meeting, the party took an oath to launch a major movement in the country with the MGNREGA scheme as the central focus. “In this oath, we have outlined five key points,” he said. Kharge added that party leaders had committed themselves to take a leading role and launch the MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan from January 5.
“We will protect the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under all circumstances. MGNREGA is not just a scheme; it is the right to work enshrined in the Constitution of India,” he said.
He said the party was resolved to unite and struggle for the dignity of rural labourers, their employment, wages, and the right to timely payment, and to safeguard the rights of gram sabhas for demand-based employment.
He added that the party also pledged to democratically oppose every conspiracy to erase Gandhiji’s name from MGNREGA and to turn workers’ rights into mere charity. “With faith in the Constitution and democracy, we resolve to save MGNREGA, save workers’ rights, and raise our voice in every village,” Kharge said.
He stressed that removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the MGNREGA scheme was an “insult.”
Kharge highlighted that Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had enacted a law based on the right to work. “The Congress government empowered the people, but the Modi government is only focused on changing names,” he asserted. “We will launch a nationwide movement to protect the rights of the poor and fight against this injustice,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi said that MGNREGA was not just a work programme but a conceptual development framework that was appreciated across the world.
Targeting the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi said, “This is being destroyed single handedly by the Prime Minister without consulting his Cabinet and without studying the matter.”
He said this was an attack on the states of India because the government was taking away money that belonged to the states as well as the decision making power that belonged to them.
“It is an attack on the infrastructure of the states because MGNREGA was used to build infrastructure. It is the decimation of Indian labour because MGNREGA guaranteed a minimum floor below which Indian labour could not fall,” the Congress leader said.
Rahul Gandhi described the scrapping of MGNREGA as a “devastating attack” on the states and on the poor of the country, carried out by the Prime Minister single-handedly. He said it would cause tremendous pain to the weaker sections, to Adivasis, to Dalits, to OBCs, to poor general castes, and to minorities.
“At the same time, it is going to benefit Mr Adani in full measure. That is the purpose of this exercise: to take money away from poor people and hand it to people like Adani,” he said.
He added that MGNREGA, apart from being a rights-based programme, also strengthened panchayats. “This, therefore, is an attack on the democratic structure,” Rahul Gandhi said, adding, “we are going to resist it, we are going to fight it, and I am confident that the entire Opposition will stand united against this action.”
Meanwhile, a party leader said that the Congress would run the nationwide MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan from January 5 till February. The party will also hold four public meetings during the programme, to be addressed by Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and others.
The government has got the VB-G RAM G Bill (Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Bill) passed in both Houses of Parliament during the recently concluded Winter Session to replace MGNREGA.
