NewzVille Desk
The Congress will launch a nationwide mass movement to save the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from 5 January 5, 2025.
This was decided at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee(CWC) held today. The CWC was presided over by the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and others.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Kharge said that the CWC had unanimously vowed to save and protect the MGNREGA at all costs.
Rahul Gandhi described the scrapping of MGNREGA as an attack on the federal structure of the country, saying the decision was taken single-handedly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – much like demonetisation – without taking anyone into confidence, neither the minister concerned nor the Cabinet.
Kharge said that the Congress will do everything to save MGNREGA at all costs. He said, it is not merely a scheme, but a constitutional right to work for the rural poor.
The Congress president wondered why the government decided to scrap it, when even the NITI Aayog had concluded that it could help create durable assets and productive schemes.
He pointed out, MGNREGA had helped the poor to make a living with respect and dignity by providing employment to Dalits, tribal people, marginalised sections and women.
Kharge said, by raising the states’ share from 10 to 40 percent, the Centre would put extra economic burden on them. He questioned why the Government of India needed to do this when it claims the country is the fourth largest economy in the world.
Speaking on the occasion, Rahul Gandhi said, MGNREGA was not just a scheme but a rights-based concept. He said, the Government of India had attacked this rights-based framework and undermined the federal structure of the country, besides snatching the power of the ‘gram panchayats’.
He remarked that money was being taken from the states by the Centre, leading not only to concentration of power but concentration of finances as well.
Gandhi warned that it will cause great loss to the country and the poor will be badly hurt.
He said the decision was directly taken by the PMO without taking the concerned minister or cabinet into confidence. “This is a one-man show”, he remarked.
The senior Congress leader said that the entire benefit will go to a few billionaire friends of the Prime Minister.
Pointing out that the MGNREGA was a rights-based law, he said, the BJP will make the rights-based architecture collapse, which will harm the rural economy.
Scrapping of MGNREGA, he apprehended, will lead to decimation of Indian labour. MGNREGA used to guarantee a minimum safety net below which Indian labour could not fall, he added.
The CWC also took an oath, stating that MGNREGA is not merely a Government scheme but the embodiment of the right to work envisioned by the Constitution of India itself.
The CWC pledged that the Indian National Congress will collectively struggle to secure the right to dignity, employment, and fair and timely compensation due to India’s rural workers. It said that the party will protect the demand-based employment model and the autonomy of the ‘gram sabha’.
The CWC also resolved to oppose by all democratic means possible the attempt to remove the name of Mahatma Gandhi from the MGNREGA and to convert the rights of the workers to a government dole.
It said that the party will protect MGNREGA, the rights of India’s workers, and take its voice to every last village, while keeping full faith in the Constitution of India and Indian democracy.
Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, and Chairman of Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera were also present during the press conference.
