Rahul on MGNREGA: Rahul Gandhi launches a major attack on the Modi government, saying that the 20-year-old MGNREGA scheme was destroyed in a single day.

Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, launched a scathing attack on the Modi government over the Viksit Bharat G Ram Ji Bill. Rahul Gandhi said that the Modi government had dismantled the 20-year-old MNREGA scheme in a single day. Rahul Gandhi alleged that the government had passed the Viksit Bharat G Ram Ji Bill through Parliament without proper scrutiny.

Rahul Gandhi termed the Viksit Bharat G Ram Ji Bill as anti-village.

Rahul Gandhi termed the new bill, Viksit Bharat G Ram Ji, which replaces MNREGA, as anti-village and said, "PM Modi's objectives are clear: to weaken the power of rural India, especially the backward classes, to centralise power, and then sell slogans as reforms." In a post shared on social media, Rahul Gandhi wrote, "Last night, the Modi government demolished the 20-year-old MNREGA in a single day. It has ended the rights-based, demand-driven guarantee and converted it into a ration-based scheme that can be controlled from Delhi. It is anti-state and anti-village by design."

The MNREGA law reduced exploitation and migration

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha also said that MNREGA empowered rural laborers with bargaining power. He said, "With real alternatives, exploitation and distress migration decreased, wages increased, working conditions improved, and rural infrastructure was built and improved. This government wants to break that very power." He said that by limiting work and creating more ways to deny it, the Viksit Bharat G Ram Ji Bill weakens the only weapon available to the rural poor.

Gandhi claimed, "We saw what MNREGA meant during COVID. When the economy shut down, and people's livelihoods were destroyed, MNREGA saved millions of people from starvation and debt." The Congress leader claimed that it helped women the most. Year after year, the number of workdays for women increased. Rahul Gandhi Accuses Government of Forcibly Passing Developed India Guarantee Bill

Criticising the new bill, Rahul Gandhi said, "The biggest issue is that this law was forcibly passed in Parliament without proper scrutiny. The opposition's demand to send the bill to the Standing Committee was rejected. A law that alters the rural social contract, affecting millions of labourers, should never be rammed through without serious committee scrutiny, expert advice, and public hearings."

Rahul Gandhi Levels Serious Allegations Against the Central Government

Rahul Gandhi said, "PM Modi's objectives are clear: to weaken labourers, to weaken the power of rural India, especially Dalits, OBCs, and tribals, to centralise power, and then to sell slogans as reforms." The Congress leader added, "MGNREGA was one of the world's most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment programs. We will not allow this government to destroy the last line of defence for the rural poor. We will stand with the labourers, panchayats, and states to defeat this move and will build a nationwide front to ensure that this law is withdrawn."

On Thursday night, Parliament passed the Developed India Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission (Rural) Bill amidst strong protests from the opposition. This bill will replace the 20-year-old MGNREGA law. The new bill guarantees 125 days of rural wage employment every year. The opposition strongly protested the removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the existing rural employment guarantee scheme and accused the central government of imposing a financial burden on the states.