Congress calls MGNREGA replacement Bill a 'BJP-RSS plot', vows stiff oppn

The Congress on Monday hit back at the government after the Centre introduced a Bill to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), alleging it was a BJP-RSS conspiracy to dismantle the programme named after Mahatma Gandhi.

- ANAND SINGH

The proposed legislation has been titled The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Grameen), abbreviated as VB G RAM G.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on Xin Hindi, said the move went beyond a mere renaming exercise. “This is not just about changing the name of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This is a BJP-RSS conspiracy to end MGNREGA,” he said.

Kharge added that erasing Gandhi's name during the centenary year of the RSS exposed what he called the hypocrisy of those who “offer flowers to Bapu on foreign soil”. “A government that recoils from the rights of the poor is the one that attacks MGNREGA,” he said.