Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Modi government over the passage of the VB-G RAM G Bill, accusing it of undoing two decades of safeguards provided under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). He described the new legislation as “anti-village” and “anti-state”, alleging that it strips rural workers of hard-won rights.
In a post on X, Gandhi said the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill was being presented as reform, but in reality amounted to a dilution of MGNREGA’s rights-based and demand-driven framework. “In one stroke, twenty years of MGNREGA have been dismantled,” he said, claiming the new law replaces a guaranteed entitlement with a centrally controlled, rationed scheme. According to him, the design of the legislation weakens both states and village institutions.
Gandhi argued that MGNREGA had fundamentally altered power relations in rural India by giving workers real choices. “It reduced exploitation and distress migration, improved wages and working conditions, and helped build rural assets,” he said, adding that this bargaining power was precisely what the government now sought to erode.
He alleged that by limiting the availability of work and creating additional hurdles to access employment, the new law undermines one of the few effective protections available to the rural poor. Recalling the Covid-19 lockdown, Gandhi said MGNREGA had acted as a lifeline when livelihoods collapsed, preventing millions from slipping into hunger and debt.
The Congress leader also highlighted the scheme’s impact on women, noting that they consistently accounted for more than half of total person-days generated. He warned that any rationing of rural employment would disproportionately affect women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless labourers and the poorest OBC communities.
Gandhi further criticised the way the Bill was pushed through Parliament, alleging that it was passed without adequate debate or scrutiny. He said the opposition’s demand to send the legislation to a standing committee was rejected despite its wide-ranging implications. “A law that reshapes the rural social contract should not be rushed without expert inputs and public consultation,” he said.
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of centralising authority, Gandhi claimed the move was aimed at weakening labour while being projected as reform. Calling MGNREGA one of the most successful poverty alleviation programmes globally, he said the Congress would oppose the new law both inside and outside Parliament.
“We will stand with workers, panchayats and states to resist this and ensure the rollback of the legislation,” Gandhi said.
Parliament late Thursday passed the VB-G RAM G Bill, which replaces the two-decade-old MGNREGA and promises up to 125 days of rural wage employment annually. The legislation was cleared by the Lok Sabha and later passed in the Rajya Sabha through a voice vote amid protests by opposition parties, who objected to the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme and alleged that the Centre was shifting a larger financial burden onto states.
