New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday, January 22, alleged that the repeal of MGNREGA by the government was part of a “conspiracy to erase” Mahatma Gandhi’s name from public memory and asserted that his party will strongly raise the issue during the upcoming Budget session of Parliament.
Addressing the National Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Workers’ Convention organised by the Rachnatmak Congress, Kharge said the Modi government is working to end MGNREGA so that the oppressed and downtrodden people of the country can be turned into “bonded labourers.”
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of indulging in propaganda, the Congress chief said, “He (Modi) says ‘I am a chaiwala’ only to get votes. Have you (Modi) ever made tea and gone inside trains with a kettle of tea. They are just trying to take people’s vote through propaganda and I would say that all of this is just their drama.”
Kharge asserted that the Congress would keep fighting until the government withdraws the new Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act and fully restores the UPA-era MGNREGA.
Workers from across the country participated in the convention, bringing a fistful of soil from their work sites that was put in plants as a symbolic gesture in the presence of Kharge and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
With the traditional labourer’s ‘gamchha’ on their head, Kharge and Gandhi also posed with spades in their hands at the event.
“By ending MGNREGA, the government has attacked the poor and weaker sections of rural India, and this is being opposed across the country. The Budget session is about to begin soon, in which we will strongly raise the issue of MGNREGA (repeal),” Kharge said.
The event was also attended by Congress general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal, as well as Rachnatmak Congress chairperson Sandeep Dikshit, among others.
“We had started MGNREGA in the name of Mahatma Gandhi ji, but this government is determined to destroy it,” the Congress chief claimed.
Abolishing MGNREGA is not merely an assault on the weaker sections but is a “conspiracy to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s name from public memory” and an attack on the vision of Gram Swaraj, he alleged.
“This is the first time any party has dared to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from a scheme named after him. The nation will not tolerate this,” Kharge said.
“The Modi government is working to end MGNREGA so that the oppressed and downtrodden people of the country can be turned into ‘bonded labourers’. Narendra Modi is about to hand over people as bonded labourers into the hands of the rich, so that people work at the behest of the rich, on their whims,” he said.
Noting that MGNREGA provided people with a legal guarantee of 100 days of work, Kharge said this right is now being destroyed and people must fight to save the UPA-era scheme and the right to work.
“Sonia Gandhi Ji, under Article 41, granted the general public the Right to Work, Right to Food Security, Right to Education, and Right to Information. If the public does not contribute to this movement today, it will lose its rights,” the Congress chief said.
“Then one day will come— where only those who have money, who have land, who have good degrees— will have the right to vote. Therefore, I want to say that we must protect our legal rights,” Kharge said.
He claimed that the government by bringing in Aadhaar in the Act and digital attendance, has excluded millions of labourers from MGNREGA.
“The Modi government sometimes tries to eliminate our ideology through SIR, and sometimes works to strip away workers’ rights. Narendra Modi is determined to end the world’s largest employment scheme,” he alleged.
“The country is being run by two people— Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They don’t work for the country, they just keep roaming around doing election propaganda. Modi ji says they will bring bullet trains, but forget bullet trains— they haven’t been able to lay even new railway tracks,” Kharge claimed.
They could not do any work for the poor, but they reach everywhere to wave the green flag and inaugurate, he said.
If they had ever done hard labour themselves, they would have understood the pain of workers, Kharge said.
He said the same kind of voice that farmers raised to repeal the “black” farm laws, would have to be raised by “labour comrades”.
“You will have to fight for your rights. We will have to fight together to bring back MGNREGA. In this fight, the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi ji and every single worker is with you,” the Congress president said.
He said MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of work, but the Modi government can’t even provide 40 days of work to labourers.
“Gandhi Ji wanted to bring Gram Swaraj, but this government and Narendra Modi are putting their stamp of approval on decisions coming out of the RSS headquarters,” he alleged.
The Congress launched ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’, a 45-day nationwide campaign against the repeal of the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), on January 10.
The opposition party is demanding the withdrawal of the VB-G RAM G Act and restoration of MGNREGA as a rights-based law in its original form and the authority of panchayats.
