US EditionInsult to Mahatma Gandhi: Opposition Attacks Centre over New Rural Jobs Law
Opposition claims renaming MGNREGA dismantles rights-based guarantees and shifts financial burden to states, with the new bill codifying technology that may limit entitlements for lakhs of rural workers.
- On December 15, 2025, the Centre listed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha supplementary list of business to repeal MGNREGA and create a new framework.
- Opposition leaders argued the renaming reflects an ideological intent, with Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress president, calling it a BJP‑RSS conspiracy to dismantle MGNREGA.
- The draft bill outlines specific legal and funding shifts, promising 125 days of unskilled work annually while imposing 90:10 and 60:40 cost‑sharing ratios and state liabilities.
- The Opposition responded by pledging parliamentary and street resistance, demanding Standing Committees review, and warning the bill 'attacks the soul' of rights-based guarantees, worsening rural distress.
- High‑profile objections highlighted the symbolic stakes of the renaming, with Shashi Tharoor and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra questioning the removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name and noting practical renaming costs.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said about MNREGA that Mahatma Gandhi had a clear vision for the welfare of the rural poor. He combined the ideas of Ramrajya and Gram Swaraj. It was a good name and has been known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in various Indian languages for the past twenty years. Therefore, a name change is not necessary, and it has even been debated in Parliament, where the government has called th…
Congress slams govt over bill replacing MGNREGA; Tharoor objects to removing Gandhi’s name
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the concept of Gram Swaraj and the ideal of Ram Rajya were never competing forces but they were the twin pillars of Gandhi's consciousness, and replacing the Mahatma's name in a scheme for the rural poor ignores this profound symbiosis.
'Let us not dishonour his legacy...’: Tharoor, Priyanka Gandhi slams govt over renaming MGNREGA
Even as the Congress slammed the Centre over the move to change the name of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), their party leader Shashi Tharoor called the controversy “unfortunate". Congress sources reacted strongly to it, saying the leader should make his position clear. Tharoor, in a post on X, wrote, “The controversy over renaming MGNREGA in the Govt’s proposed new G-RAM-G Bill is unfortunate. The concept of Gr…
Controversy over MGNREGA renaming unfortunate: Shashi Tharoor
Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said the renaming was aimed at claiming credit for a programme that was conceived and implemented by the previous Congress-led UPA government. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier described MGNREGA as a “monument of failure”.
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