New Delhi: The Opposition Tuesday mounted a robust pushback towards the proposed revamp of the agricultural job assure scheme—searching for to exchange MGNREGA with a brand new legislation—terming the transfer “retrograde” and warning that it might erode the right-to-work framework established beneath the UPA-era laws.

The Opposition benches within the Lok Sabha erupted in protest as Rural Improvement Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sought to introduce the Viksit Bharat Assure for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Invoice, 2025, which seeks to exchange MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Nationwide Rural Employment Assure Act).

Vadra stated no Invoice needs to be launched or handed within the Home based mostly on “somebody’s ambition, obsession or prejudice”.

“The obsession to alter the identify of each scheme is inexplicable. Every time they do it, the Centre has to spend cash. With none dialogue, with out the permission of the Home, this Invoice shouldn’t be handed in such haste. This Invoice needs to be withdrawn or at the least despatched to a Standing Committee for deep scrutiny,” she stated.

When a voice from the treasury benches identified that Mahatma Gandhi didn’t belong to the Gandhi household that Priyanka comes from, she retorted, “Mahatma Gandhi didn’t belong to my household, however he was like my household, and that’s the case for the entire nation.”

In his response, Chouhan stated he would deal with the issues raised by Opposition MPs when the Invoice is taken up for detailed dialogue. “Mahatma Gandhi resides in our hearts. Congress had modified the identify of Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. Does it imply it insulted Jawaharlal Nehru? Gandhi envisioned self-sustained, empowered villages. The brand new legislation will assist realise his imaginative and prescient by guaranteeing whole growth of villages. I don’t perceive their objection to G RAM G. The scheme is just not being weakened. The Invoice is to determine Ram Rajya,” Chouhan stated.

Lok Sabha Chief of Opposition Rahul Gandhi additionally registered his protest towards the brand new Invoice in a submit on X. Calling it a “direct insult to the beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi”, he wrote, “Modi ji has a deep dislike for 2 issues—the concepts of Mahatma Gandhi and the rights of the poor.”

He added, “Now, Modi ji needs to rework MGNREGA right into a software of centralised management: 1. Budgets, schemes, and guidelines can be dictated by the Centre 2. States can be pressured to bear 40% of the prices 3. As soon as funds run out, or throughout harvest season, staff can be denied employment for months.”

Modi ji has a deep dislike for 2 issues – the concepts of Mahatma Gandhi and the rights of the poor.

MGNREGA is the dwelling embodiment of Mahatma Gandhi’s imaginative and prescient of Gram Swaraj. It has been a lifeline for tens of millions of rural Indians and proved to be a vital financial security web…

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 16, 2025

Practically all Opposition MPs, who registered their objections in the course of the introduction of the Invoice within the Lok Sabha, flagged the rise within the monetary burden on states beneath the proposed new structure of the scheme, and its pivot from being demand-driven to supply-driven.

Beneath the revamp, the Centre and most states will share the bills in a 60:40 ratio.

NCP MP Supriya Sule, nonetheless, struck a special be aware, stating that she acknowledges the necessity to replace schemes and insurance policies over time. Sule opposed the transfer to drop the identify of Mahatma Gandhi from the scheme and in addition seconded the demand that the Invoice be despatched to a Home committee.

Her nuanced place will be traced to the truth that it was her father, Sharad Pawar, who in 2011, whereas serving as agriculture minister within the UPA-II authorities, had advisable that works beneath the scheme be halted throughout peak sowing and harvesting seasons to release manpower for farm work. The brand new Invoice additionally proposes halting work throughout peak seasons within the agriculture cycle.

Tharoor stated the Centre’s transfer represents a “deeply regrettable and retrograde step”, contending that eradicating Mahatma Gandhi’s identify quantities to stripping the Invoice of “its ethical compass and historic legitimacy”.

On the Invoice’s identify, the Thiruvananthapuram MP additionally quoted a track from his childhood, “dekho yeh dewano O dewano yeh kaam mat karo, Ram ka naam badnam mat karo“. Tharoor was pointing to the usage of each Hindi and English within the title “simply to get the acronym G RAM G”.

“This isn’t simply an administrative tweak. It’s an assault on the very spirit and philosophical basis of this significant programme. Mahatma Gandhi’s imaginative and prescient of Ram Rajya was by no means a purely political programme. It was a socio-economic blueprint rooted within the empowerment of villages. The unique act acknowledged this profound connection that true employment assure and upliftment should stream from the grassroots,” he stated.

Tharoor stated the proposal to shift 40 per cent of the scheme’s monetary burden to states was not solely “fiscally irresponsible” but in addition threatened to make the programme unviable.

“This sudden and large shift in legal responsibility will inevitably make it unattainable for poorer states. It can result in delays in wage funds, decreased days of labor, and in the end the destruction of the scheme itself,” Tharoor stated, echoing a degree made by Vadra.

DMK MP Baalu alleged that the “father of the nation is being ridiculed by this new Invoice”. Roy stated that whereas Lord Ram is a revered determine, “Mahatma Gandhi is extra related”.

Congress MP KC Venugopal attacked Chouhan, saying, “You’ll be remembered because the minister who eliminated the identify of Mahatma Gandhi.”

Samajwadi Get together’s Dharmendra Yadav identified that it was ironic that whereas leaders of the ruling dispensation “go world wide garlanding the statue of the Mahatma”, they had been dropping his identify from the scheme.

(Edited by Vidhi Bhutra)

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