New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday said the party will launch a nationwide mass agitation called MGNREGA Bachao Andolan on 5 January to demand a repeal of the Centre’s newly enacted VB-GRAM G law that replaced the UPA-era rural employment guarantee scheme.
Addressing reporters after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Kharge said the party will fight on the streets and in Parliament to demand a repeal of the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)) Act (VB-G RAM G Act), 2025.
“In the CWC meeting, we have taken a resolution to start MGNREGA Bachao Andolan from 5th January, 2026,” he said.
Much like the farm laws, the government will have to take a U-turn on scrapping the MGNREGA because it was a one-sided decision on which neither the state governments nor the people or stakeholders like the panchayats were consulted, Kharge added.
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‘For benefit of 2-3 billionaires’
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said repealing the MGNREGA and replacing it with the VB-G RAM G Act is a direct attack on the rights-based concept architecture, federal structure, and the poor of the country, and the Congress party will fight back this attack with all its strength.
Much like note bandi, this decision was taken unilaterally by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and the Cabinet or even the minister concerned was not consulted, Gandhi claimed. “This shows that this is a one man’s show, and Narendra Modi ji does what he wants for the benefit of 2-3 billionaires.”
A resolution released by the Congress said that the party solemnly vows to lead the MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan from the 5th of January, and it pledges to “collectively struggle to secure the right to dignity, employment, and fair and timely compensation due to India’s rural workers.”
LIVE: Special CWC Briefing | Indira Bhawan, New Delhi. https://t.co/FZeqSTMOoe
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 27, 2025
“We will protect the demand-based employment model and the autonomy of the gram sabha,” it said.
The party also resolved to “oppose by all democratic means possible the attempt to remove the name of Mahatma Gandhi from the MGNREGA and convert the rights of workers to a government dole”.
The VB-G RAM G Bill was passed by Parliament in the recently concluded Winter Session amid strong protests by the opposition over the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name and the financial burden being put on states—changing the Centre-state ratio of the financial burden from 90:10 to 60:40.
Moreover, under the new law, the Centre will decide state-wise normative allocation each financial year, and states will bear any excessive expenditure above the normative allocation.
While the government makes tall claims of India being the fourth-largest economy, why does it not have money to pay the country’s labourers, Kharge asked, alleging that the government wants to snatch away the money meant for workers, and hand it over to Ambani-Adani.
Not just the Gandhi family, they hate Mahatma Gandhi too, Kharge said.
He said that under the MGNREGA, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had sought to turn the directive principles enshrined in the Constitution into rights for the poor.
During the Covid panemci, the MGNREGA proved to be a saviour for the poor, several of whom would have died without that safety net, he added.
During the pandemic in 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Centre sharply increased the budget allocations for the MGNREGA to record levels—nearly Rs 1.10 lakh-crore and 96,000 crore, respectively, in order to meet huge demand as rural workers returned to villages amidst lockdowns and job losses in cities.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi added that the decision to repeal MGNREGA is a devastating attack and decimation of Indian labour and the rural economy, which would harm the Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, general caste poor, and the minorities.
The entire Opposition, Gandhi said, will come together to fight this “assault” on the poor.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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