The Aryavarth Express
New Delhi: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Monday announced that the party will launch a public agitation campaign to repeal the abolition of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has been replaced by the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgaar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill (VB-G RAM-G).
In a detailed post on social media platform X, Ramesh traced the historical evolution of employment guarantee programmes in India, highlighting the Congress party’s role in laying the foundation for MGNREGA over several decades.
He recalled that in the 1970s, following a severe drought, the Congress government in Maharashtra under V.P. Naik, inspired by V.S. Page, introduced the pioneering Employment Guarantee Scheme to address rural distress. In the early 1980s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched two major initiatives — the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP).
Ramesh further noted that in the early 1990s, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao announced the Employment Assurance Scheme covering 100 of the poorest districts. He added that the Congress, in its Lok Sabha election manifesto released in March 2004, pledged to enact a law guaranteeing 100 days of employment annually to rural families — a promise that later became part of the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme in May 2004.
In his post, Ramesh also underscored the crucial roles played by former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the enactment of MGNREGA.
The Congress leader’s remarks came in response to Sonia Gandhi’s editorial published in The Hindu on Monday, titled “The Bulldozed Demolition of MGNREGA.”
Earlier, on Sunday, Ramesh said the “fundamental character” of MGNREGA had been altered under the new legislation. He announced that the Congress Working Committee meeting scheduled for December 27 will finalise an action plan for a nationwide movement against the VB-G RAM-G Bill, which has already been passed by Parliament.
Ramesh alleged that the new law has taken away employment opportunities from rural, deprived and marginalised sections of society. “The basic structure of the scheme has been changed. The employment that was being provided to rural, deprived and exploited people has been taken away,” he said.
He further accused the BJP of acting out of ideological bias, claiming the government rushed the legislation without adequate consultation with state governments. “They hate Mahatma Gandhi’s name, and they hate the laws enacted during the Congress regime. I don’t understand why they rushed this through,” Ramesh added.
