Kumaraswamy Challenges Congress on G-RAM-G, Accuses Party of Distorting Rural Reforms

In a political duel heavy with history and accusation, Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel HD Kumaraswamy on Saturday accused the Congress of manufacturing a convenient falsehood around the G-RAM-G (Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission – Rural) scheme and invited its Karnataka leadership to a debateon the issue.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Leader of the Opposition R Ashok and BJP state president Vijayendra Yediyurappa, Kumaraswamy said the Congress was struggling to come to terms with a political climate in which "old narratives no longer travelled unquestioned".

The scheme, he argued, was being wilfully misrepresented despite being conceived under Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an attempt to repair, not dismantle, rural employment mechanisms.

Kumaraswamy questioned the Congress party's repeated invocation of Mahatma Gandhi's name, remarking that a party which governed India for decades had found greater comfort naming schemes after the Nehru family than in adhering to Gandhian ideals.

The charge, sharpened by irony, was that moral ownership was being asserted by those who had long since mortgaged it. Turning to MGNREGA, the union Minister asked whether years of "fake bills, dubious job cards and untraceable beneficiaries" were to be brushed aside as administrative footnotes.

Assembly sessions and padayatras, he said, were now being deployed not as instruments of accountability but as distractions from a record marked by neglect of the poorest daily-wage workers.

Rejecting claims that MGNREGA was being diluted, Kumaraswamy said the programme had merely been forced to confront its own distortions. Reforms, he argued, were not acts of vandalism but overdue housekeeping.

The G-RAM-G framework, he added, did not erode the authority of Gram Panchayats or states; instead, it sought to strengthen grassroots decision-making through Gram Sabhas, social audits and a transparent flow of funds.

He accused the Karnataka government of failing to use central funds effectively, allowing opacity to flourish where accountability was required.

Under the revised 60:40 funding model, Kumaraswamy said, the Centre had not usurped power but insisted on shared responsibility, a concept that appeared to unsettle those accustomed to unilateral control.

Responding to claims of massive misappropriation, Kumaraswamy dismissed references to Rs 11 lakh crore as either ignorance or deliberate distortion, clarifying that the figure reflected total expenditure over the years, not proven embezzlement. He suggested that confusion was being passed off as critique.

Recalling incidents from Congress rule, including a controversial episode in Koppal involving unpaid workers and alleged irregularities, Kumaraswamy argued that the scheme launched with good intent in 2005 had been corroded by corruption and indifference. The present reforms, he said, merely acknowledged what should have been addressed long ago.

Vijayendra echoed the attack, accusing the Congress of opposing reforms not on principle but out of habit, and of confusing welfare with patronage. He said transparency under the NDA had unsettled a party more comfortable with scandals than systems, adding that debates in the legislature would only underline the contrast between past practice and present reform.

Vijayendra said the Congress had never believed in welfare schemes but had instead thrived on scams during its tenure in power. "The Congress party always believed in scams, not schemes. Because of the scams during the UPA government, India could not emerge as a developed nation," he alleged.

He defended the NDA government’s move to introduce reforms in MGNREGA and other rural development programmes, saying the intent was to bring transparency, accountability and curb corruption. "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to bring changes to ensure that benefits genuinely reach rural people, the Congress is trying to spread false propaganda," he said.

Vijayendra welcomed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s decision to convene a special session of the legislature to discuss the issue. "We welcome the Chief Minister’s decision. Let there be a discussion on the floor of the House on what the Congress has done under MGNREGA since its inception and what the NDA government has achieved in the last 10 years," he said.

Rejecting allegations that funds meant for villages and gram panchayats were being diverted, the BJP leader challenged the state government to produce documentary evidence. “The money belongs to villagers and gram panchayats. If anyone claims it is being taken away, let them publish proof," he said.

Vijayendra also accused the Congress government in Karnataka of doing injustice to the people by opposing the National Education Policy without coming up with a State Education Policy of its own. "There is no SEP and no NEP being implemented. This is harming the interests of Karnataka’s people," he said.

He asserted that the Constitution was not being violated by the proposed changes to MGNREGA and that the scheme would continue with necessary modifications based on experience over the past decade. "Some changes are needed to plug loopholes. The scheme will continue, but it must be reformed to function better," he added.

Leaders from the JD(S) and BJP were present at the press conference, underscoring that the argument over G-RAM-G was no longer just about a scheme, but about competing ideas of governance, accountability and political memory.