Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday mounted a joint attack on the BJP-led NDA government over the VB-G RAM G Act, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “single-handedly” dismantling the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in a move they likened to demonetisation.
Addressing a press conference, Gandhi said the decision to replace the 20-year-old rural employment scheme was taken without consultation, study or Cabinet approval, calling it a direct assault on the poor and on India’s federal structure.
“The prime minister has single-handedly destroyed MGNREGA without asking his Cabinet or studying the matter. It is a devastating attack on the poor and on states, much like demonetisation,” Gandhi said, adding that the Congress would resist the move and that the entire opposition would stand united.
The VB-G RAM G Act, passed during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament amid opposition protests, replaces MGNREGA and provides for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.
Gandhi said the UPA-era law was not merely a welfare scheme but a globally admired development framework rooted in rights-based governance.
The Congress will launch a nationwide ‘MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan’ from January 5, he added.
Backing him, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said a countrywide campaign must be built against the repeal, drawing parallels with the agitation that forced the rollback of the three farm laws.
Speaking at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Kharge described MGNREGA as a “visionary law” and said repealing it amounted to an insult to Mahatma Gandhi and an attack on the Right to Work.
“The Modi government repealed the law without any study, evaluation or consultation with states or political parties. This decision must be opposed across the country,” Kharge said.
Citing past precedents, he recalled how amendments to the land acquisition law were withdrawn in 2015 and how the farm laws were repealed following nationwide protests in 2020–21.
“Rahul Gandhi had predicted that the farm laws would be taken back. Now he says MGNREGA too will have to be restored,” Kharge said, urging party workers to mobilise public support.
Kharge also flagged concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, calling it a “well-planned conspiracy” to weaken democratic rights. Alleging collusion between the BJP and the Election Commission, he said efforts were underway to delete or shift the names of Dalits, tribals, backward classes and minorities, and called on party workers to guard against it.
He further condemned attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and said incidents targeting Christmas celebrations by “organisations linked to the BJP and RSS” had disturbed communal harmony and tarnished India’s global image.
The CWC meeting, the first since the Mahagathbandhan’s defeat in the Bihar assembly polls, was attended by senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, general secretary K C Venugopal and Shashi Tharoor.
Before the meeting, leaders paid tribute to former prime minister Manmohan Singh and observed a two-minute silence in memory of late Congress leaders Shivraj Patil and Sriprakash Jaiswal.