Rahul Gandhi Urges Workers to Unite Against MGNREGA Replacement

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged party workers to draw inspiration from farmers and unite to demand the rollback of the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar Ajeevika Mission (VB-G RAM G) Act, which replaced the MGNREGA.

Speaking at the National MGNREGA Workers’ Convention, organised by the Rachnatmak Congress wing, Gandhi compared the government’s move to scrap MGNREGA to the introduction of the “three black farm laws” in 2020-21, which were repealed after farmers protested at Delhi’s borders for a year.

He called the Modi government “cowardly” and stressed that unity among workers was the key to challenging its policies. “If we stand together, you can decide the name of the scheme and its modalities. But there is one shortcoming, and that is lack of unity,” he said.

Gandhi recalled the farm laws, describing them as “an attack on farmers” that were eventually stopped due to sustained pressure in Parliament and on the streets. He said the same approach is now being applied to workers, with the government controlling funding, work allocation, and wages. “The rights of workers have been finished, and what workers used to get will now go to contractors and bureaucracy,” he claimed.

He further alleged that the central government’s policies are designed to concentrate wealth and property in the hands of a select few.

Gandhi called on the poor to unite, saying the MGNREGA movement offers an opportunity to reclaim their rights. “If they stand together, PM Modi will back off and MGNREGA would be reinstated,” he said. He emphasised that MGNREGA gives people the right to work with dignity, a principle he said the BJP is trying to undermine.

Workers from across the country participated in the convention, bringing soil from their work sites and planting it as a symbolic gesture, according to PTI.

Earlier, on January 10, Congress launched the 45-day nationwide campaign “MGNREGA Bachao Sangram” against the repeal of the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The party is demanding that the VB-G RAM G Act be withdrawn and that MGNREGA be restored as a rights-based law, preserving the right to work and the authority of panchayats.