Amid sharp criticism from the opposition over the Centre's proposed overhaul of MGNREGA, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday said that the controversy after the renaming was 'unfortunate'.
In a post on X, he described the controversy as “unfortunate” and argued that the concepts being invoked were never in conflict with Mahatma Gandhi’s thought. “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 wrote, adding that projecting the change as a rejection of Gandhi’s legacy ignored this “profound symbiosis”.
Responding to the controversy over the proposed Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB—G RAM G Bill, 2025, Tharoor said it was the framing of the issue, rather than the renaming itself, that was problematic.
The Kerala MP's intervention also comes against the backdrop of questions over his equations with the Congress leadership. Last Thursday, Tharoor skipped a meeting of Congress Lok Sabha MPs chaired by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. He had informed the party of his unavailability, news agency ANI quoted party sources as saying.
The Congress on Saturday criticised the Union government over the Cabinet’s approval of a Bill to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), alleging that the move reflects an attempt to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and mask what it described as the Centre’s neglect of the rural employment scheme.
Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said the renaming was aimed at claiming credit for a programme that was conceived and implemented by the previous Congress-led UPA government. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier described MGNREGA as a “monument of failure”.
Calling the decision “yet another way of erasing Mahatma Gandhi from our national psyche”, Venugopal said the move was particularly significant in rural India, where Gandhi believed “India’s soul resides”. In a post on X, he alleged that the change was cosmetic and intended to divert attention from what he termed the systematic weakening of the scheme. Venugopal said MGNREGA workers across the country have been demanding higher wages, while allocations for the scheme have been reduced year after year.
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