Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday said the controversy surrounding the Narendra Modi government’s move to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was “unfortunate,” asserting that the concepts of Gram Swaraj and Ram Rajya were twin pillars of Mahatma Gandhi’s conscience.
“The controversy over renaming MGNREGA in the government’s proposed new G-RAM-G Bill is unfortunate. The concept of Gram Swaraj and the ideal of Ram Rajya were never competing forces; they were the twin pillars of Gandhiji’s consciousness,” Tharoor said in a post on X.
He also criticised the Modi government’s decision to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme. “Replacing the Mahatma’s name in a scheme for the rural poor ignores this profound symbiosis,” he said.
Tharoor further added, “His (Gandhi’s) final breath was a testament to ‘Ram’; let us not dishonour his legacy by creating a division where none existed.”
His remarks come amid a growing controversy over the Centre’s draft Bill seeking to replace the MGNREGA scheme, which is named after Mahatma Gandhi.
The Modi government is set to introduce the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, to replace MGNREGA.
However, the Opposition has strongly criticised the move and demanded that the proposed legislation be referred to the appropriate Standing Committee.
“The entire Opposition is demanding that the following three far-reaching Bills be referred to the Standing Committees concerned. We are hopeful that, in keeping with the best parliamentary traditions and practices, this demand will be agreed to by the Government. The Bills require deep study and wide consultations: the Higher Education Commission Bill, the Atomic Energy Bill, and the G-RAM-G Bill,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
Meanwhile, a confederation of labour rights bodies has also opposed the proposed Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 (VB-G RAM-G), which seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.
The organisations said the Bill “strikes at the core of social and economic justice by shifting power away from workers, Gram Sabhas and States into the hands of the Union Government.”
The rights groups, united under the banner of the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, said the proposed legislation was not a reform but a rollback of democratic and constitutional guarantees won by workers through decades of sustained struggle.