Congress to raise MGNREGA repeal issue in budget session: Rahul, Kharge attack centre

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday strongly criticised the Centre’s move to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), alleging that the government was dismantling workers’ rights and undermining the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.

Addressing the National MGNREGA Workers’ Convention organised by the Rachnatmak Congress here, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi compared the proposed repeal of MGNREGA with the now-withdrawn farm laws, claiming that the government was attempting to centralise control and weaken a rights-based welfare framework.

“The idea of MGNREGA was to guarantee work to those who need it. It gave the poor a legal right to employment through panchayats. The BJP wants to finish that concept,” Gandhi said, alleging that under the proposed Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, the Centre would decide work allocation and funding, with contractors and bureaucracy benefiting at the cost of workers.

Drawing parallels with the farmers’ agitation, Gandhi said the three farm laws were repealed only after sustained public pressure. “They are doing the same thing with workers that they did with farmers,” he alleged.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, addressing the gathering, said the repeal of MGNREGA was aimed at erasing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from public memory and weakening the principles of Gram Swaraj. He asserted that the Congress would strongly raise the issue during Parliament’s upcoming Budget session.

“In the Budget session, we will fight for this issue. People must unite and not allow the government to implement the new law,” Kharge said.

Workers from across the country participated in the convention, bringing soil from their respective work sites as a symbolic gesture, which was placed in plants in the presence of Gandhi and Kharge.

Earlier this month, the Congress launched a 45-day nationwide campaign, ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’, demanding the withdrawal of the VB-G RAM G Act and restoration of MGNREGA in its original form as a rights-based law, including the right to work and greater authority for panchayats.