‘Someone’s obsession': Priyanka attacks Modi govt over G Ram G bill in Lok Sabha, says ‘weakens’ MGNREGA guarantee
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi asserted that the MGNREGA provided livelihood to crores and strengthened the rural economy over the past two decades
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra protested strongly against the Centre's new bill to replace the rural job guarantee scheme law MGNREGA in Parliament on Tuesday. She accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to replace the original law with a much weaker one for “someone's obsession”.
This came after Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sought permission to introduce the Viksit Bharat Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, being called the VB 'G Ram G’ bill. This bill is aimed at replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
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Priyanka Gandhi cited the rules of conduct in the Lok Sabha and registered an objection. She asserted that MGNREGA provided livelihood to crores and strengthened the rural economy over the past two decades. She recalled that when it was brought in, by the Congress-led UPA government in 2005, the MGNREGA was supported by all parties.
"Mahatma Gandhi was not from my family, but he was still like a member of my family. This is the emotion of the entire nation... This bill should be sent to the Standing Committee for further deliberations. No bill should be tabled and passed because of someone's obsession and prejudice," she added.
“The bill should not be passed in haste, without taking the advice of the House and without any discussion. This bill should be withdrawn, and the government should introduce a new bill,” she demanded.
Speaking outside the House earlier in the day, the Wayanad MP said the government is trying to "weaken" the original act's guaranteed 100 days of employment.
"Firstly, the process of renaming schemes costs a lot of money to the country, so I don't understand why they are doing it," Priyanka Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament House complex, as per news agency PTI.
Second, she said, MGNREGA guaranteed 100 days of employment to the poorest of the poor, but the new bill will weaken this right under MGNREGA even when “the government has added two or three things to the bill that superficially suggest an increase in the number of working days.”
"But has the wage rate been increased?" she asked, for instance. "For so many years, you (government) have been reducing funds for MGNREGA; wherever one goes, labourers say money has not come," Priyanka Gandhi said.
“Earlier, the gram panchayat used to decide the work to be done under the scheme, but this bill gives the Centre that right and where funds are to be allocated,” she noted.
The main opposition party has alleged that the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, "attacks the soul" of rights-based guarantee by replacing it with a scheme "stacked against" the states and the workers and “defies the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi”.
According to a copy of the bill, it will provide a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.
The financial liability would be shared between the Centre and the state governments. It would be 90:10 for the northeastern states and Himalayan states, and 60:40 for all other states and Union territories with legislature. For the UTs without a legislature, the whole cost would be borne by the Centre. The MGNREGA is a centrally sponsored scheme.
