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G RAM G Bill tabled in LS, Oppn asks why Bapu’s name removed
The Indian government introduced a bill to replace MGNREGA, guaranteeing 125 wage days for rural work, facing opposition for removing Gandhi's name.
New Delhi: The Union government on Tuesday introduced a bill that seeks to guarantee 125 wage days of rural work a year and replace the two-decade old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the Lok Sabha amid strong objections by the opposition to the removal of the father of the nation’s name from the scheme.
The House witnessed an uproar soon after Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G Bill, 2025, with Congress lawmaker Priyanka Gandhi Vadra saying the bill reflected “personal ambition, obsession and prejudice” rather than public interest.
“Mahatma Gandhi is not from my family, but he is like a member of it, and the entire country feels the same way. Such bills which are inspired by someone’s personal ambition, obsession and prejudice should neither be presented nor be passed,” the Wayanad MP said.
Registering her strong objection to the bill, the Congress MP questioned the government’s repeated renaming of welfare schemes, arguing it leads to unnecessary expenditure. “The need for this government to change the names of the schemes is incomprehensible. Whenever the name of a scheme is changed, the government has to spend extra money,” she said.
The VB-G Ram G Bill proposes a guarantee of 125 days of wage employment per rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, up from 100 days of work provided under MGNREGA.
“Even though the days of employment have been increased from 100 to 125, there is no mention of an increase in wages,” Gandhi Vadra said.
The opposition members also came to the Well of the House, holding up photographs of Mahatma Gandhi.
Defending the bill, Chouhan invoked Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals of Ram Rajya (rule of Ram), saying the BJP-led government not only believes in Mahatma Gandhi but also follows his principles.
“Bapu himself said Ram Rajya. Lord Ram dwells in every part of us and every breath we take. This country resonates with the existence of Shri Ram,” he said. “I don’t know why opposition is miffed with G-RAM-G.”
Chouhan also accused the opposition of double standards, pointing to past renaming of schemes. “Previously there was a scheme named Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, the UPA government changed the name of this scheme. Does that mean we take it as an insult to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru?” he asked.
The minister further said that the Narendra Modi government has done more for rural development than previous governments. He added that while the UPA government spent ₹2,13,220 crore on MGNREGA, the current government has spent over ₹8,53,210 crore “to uplift the poor and tried to strengthen this scheme.”
Opposition leaders, however, said that the bill weakens both the spirit and structure of the central scheme and proposed sending it to a parliamentary panel.
Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor called it a “deeply regrettable and retrograde step for our nation and our nation’s commitment to the welfare of its most vulnerable citizens.”
He said removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name amounted to an attack on the programme’s philosophical foundations. “Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Ram Rajya was never a purely political programme. It was a socio-economic blueprint rooted in the empowerment of villagers and his unwavering faith in gram swaraj was part of his vision of Ram Rajya,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
Alleging that the use of G-RAM-G was unconstitutional, Tharoor took a sharp dig at the government quoting from a Bollywood song: “Dekho o deewano (tum) ye kaam na karo, Ram ka naam badnaam na karo (don’t sully Lord Ram’s name)”.
He questioned the bill’s financial structure, arguing that shifting 40% of the funding burden to states would hurt poorer states. The bill proposes a 60:40 share of costs between Centre and states, except Himalayan and Northeastern states as well as UTs with legislature, where the financial burden will be shared 90:10. For UTs without legislature, the scheme will be 100% funded by Centre.
Taking to social media, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi termed the bill an insult to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, as he accused the PM Modi-led government of seeking to eliminate the secure livelihood of the rural poor after destroying the future of India’s youth through severe unemployment.
“Modi ji has a deep hatred for two things — the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and the rights of the poor. MGNREGA is a living embodiment of Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of village self-rule. It is a lifeline for millions of rural lives, which also proved to be their economic safety shield during the COVID era,” he alleged in a post in Hindi on X.
“But Prime Minister Modi has always been irritated by this scheme, and for the past 10 years, he has been trying to weaken it. Today, he is determined to wipe out MGNREGA completely,” the Congress leader added.
Opposing the bill at the introductory stage in the House, DMK’s TR Baalu said Mahatma Gandhi lived in villages and worked for the welfare of the poor there. He added that the “father of the nation is being ridiculed by the BJP government.”
NCP(SP) lawmaker Supriya Sule proposed that the changes in the bill be sent to a parliamentary standing committee before being implemented.
The Congress has announced a nationwide protest against the bill. Party general secretary KC Venugopal has, in a letter to all state Congress presidents, urged them to organise protests at all district headquarters.
