Imposing a uniform blueprint from the center is impractical, undemocratic, and a direct attack on India’s federal structure: Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge

Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge Tweeted his highlights of the speech during debate to erase MGNREGA in Rajya Sabha on December 18, 2025 and said

This law will trap the most vulnerable sections of society back into the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty. The dream you are showing the poor will never come true. That is why the poor are saying, “What will we do with settlements built on empty promises? Give us our land; what will we do with the sky?” This law will be opposed across the country, and you will have to withdraw it. Therefore, I suggest that you continue MGNREGA in its original form and allocate more funds. This is not just a matter of changing the name, but the killing of the world’s largest employment scheme. Over the past 11 years, the Modi government has gradually weakened MGNREGA in many ways: • Continuous budget cuts • Payments to states withheld • Workers’ names removed from the rolls • Administrative hurdles created

On December 16, 2025, in response to a question in the Lok Sabha, you acknowledged that MGNREGA has been a very successful scheme. A NITI Aayog study found that MGNREGA created durable assets, improved water security, increased soil conservation and land productivity, and secured the livelihoods of the poor. During the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, when migrant workers returned to their villages on foot, MGNREGA became their lifeline.

The MGNREGA law was introduced after extensive deliberation and with the consensus of the opposition. This scheme was considered one of the most important pieces of legislation since independence. When the Standing Committee reviewed this law, BJP leader Kalyan Singh was its Chairman. The inclusion of the name ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ gave this scheme a strong and widespread national identity. MGNREGA was launched to honor Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of rural upliftment, self-reliance, and the dignity of labor. Gandhi is the man in whose honor nearly 20 heads of state from around the world bowed their heads—an honor bestowed upon very few people in the world. Gandhi Ji’s principle was “to wipe every tear from every eye”—and by ending the Right to Work, the Modi government is destroying this very ideal.

The 19th report of the Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj stated that “This scheme ensures employment for the poor and marginalized sections of society living in rural areas. Therefore, it is essential that adequate budgetary allocation be made for the effective implementation of the scheme.” In the new system you have created, the basis for providing employment will no longer be the ‘demand’ for work. Whereas under MGNREGA, it was mandatory to provide work within 15 days of a request. No work will be provided for up to 60 days during the harvesting and sowing seasons. Now the central government will decide where, on which scheme, and how much money will be spent. Panchayats and rural leadership will be marginalized.

The role of the state governments is being curtailed. State governments and their village panchayats are better acquainted with issues like drought, floods, and local needs than Delhi. Imposing a uniform blueprint from the center is impractical, undemocratic, and a direct attack on India’s federal structure. Previously, its focus was on employment guarantee, but now it will include water conservation, roads, rural housing, and digital infrastructure. Budget allocations for these schemes are already in place. The central government reduced its share of expenditure from 90 percent to 60 percent, unilaterally shifting the burden of the remaining 40 percent onto the states without consultation. Many states lack the resources to bear this 40 percent of the expenditure.

The question is, when India has become the world’s fourth-largest economy, why is the central government withdrawing from various schemes? Why is it reducing expenditure on schemes like MGNREGA? You are stopping a functioning scheme without any reason. This will prove to be your second demonetization. You will again apologize to the people. You will ask for 50 days. The government is not doing the people any favor; rather, it is the legal responsibility of the state, which you are trying to shirk.

MGNREGA is among the most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes in the world: Shri Rahul Gandhi
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Shri Rahul Gandhi Tweeted on December 12, 2025 and said:

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. 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.

By capping work and building in more ways to deny it, VB–G RAM G weakens the one instrument which 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.

And it helped women the most - year after year, women have contributed more than half the person-days. When you ration a job’s programme, it is women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless workers and the poorest OBC communities who get pushed out first.

To top it all, this law was bulldozed through Parliament without proper scrutiny. The opposition’s demand to send the bill to a Standing Committee was rejected. A law that rewires the rural social contract, affecting crores of workers should never be rammed through without serious committee scrutiny, expert consultation, and public hearings. PM Modi’s targets are clear: weaken labour, weaken the leverage of rural India, especially Dalits, OBCs and Adivasis, centralise power, and then sell slogans as “reform”.

MGNREGA is among the most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes in the world. We will not let this government destroy the rural poor’s last line of defence. We will stand with workers, panchayats, and states to defeat this move and build a nationwide front to ensure this law is withdrawn.

The proposed bill would eliminate the legal guarantee of employment for rural workers and would also significantly increase the financial burden on states: Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Lok Sabha, December 16: Congress MP and General Secretary Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra strongly opposed the government’s proposal to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and introduce a new bill.

She said that the proposed bill would eliminate the legal guarantee of employment for rural workers and would also significantly increase the financial burden on states.

Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that MGNREGA has provided employment to rural India and strengthened the rural economy over the past 20 years. She said, under this law, poor families have a legal right to employment, and it is mandatory to provide 100 days of employment on demand, with resources provided accordingly. She alleged that the new bill gives the central government the power to pre-determine the amount of funds and the areas of allocation, thereby ending the demand-based system.

The Congress General Secretary noted that this provision is against the spirit of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, which vested decision-making powers in Gram Sabhas and Gram Panchayats.

She said that this bill would weaken the rights of Gram Sabhas and Panchayats, and increase the Centre’s control, while reducing its responsibility. She also said that while 90 percent of the grant for MGNREGA is currently provided by the central government, this share has been reduced in the proposed bill.

Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also questioned the fact that while the bill proposes increasing the number of workdays from 100 to 125, it does not include any provisions to increase wages.

She demanded that this bill be withdrawn or at least be sent to the Standing Committee for detailed and serious deliberation.