Sonia Gandhi Raps Modi govt for ‘Bulldozing’ MGNREGA

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Congress leader says Centre is centralising rural jobs, erasing Gandhi’s legacy and dismantling the legal right to work for the poor

By TRH Political Desk

New Delhi, December 20, 2025 — Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi today lashed out at the Modi government for “systematically weakening the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).” She alleged that recent changes amount to an attack on the rights of rural poor, farmers and labourers.

In a video message, Gandhi said the Centre has altered the structure of MGNREGA without consultation, discussion or taking the opposition into confidence, and even removed Mahatma Gandhi’s name, undermining the spirit and intent of the landmark legislation.

She alleged that decisions on who will get employment, where and how, will now be taken centrally from Delhi, ignoring ground realities and weakening the role of the gram panchayats.

Recalling the passage of MGNREGA 20 years ago during the UPA government led by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gandhi described the law as a revolutionary step that provided a legal right to employment and benefitted crores of rural families, especially the poorest and most marginalised.

She said the scheme helped curb distress migration by enabling people to earn livelihoods in their own villages, while strengthening local self-governance and advancing Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Gram Swaraj.

Gandhi claimed that over the past 11 years, the Modi government has consistently ignored the interests of rural unemployed and disadvantaged sections, despite MGNREGA acting as a lifeline for the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asserting that MGNREGA was never a party-centric initiative but a programme rooted in national and public interest, she said diluting the law amounts to an assault on crores of farmers, workers and landless rural poor.

The CPP chairperson said she remains committed to fighting against the “black law” and added that Congress leaders and workers across the country stand united with the people in defence of MGNREGA.

“Twenty years ago, I fought to secure the right to employment for the poor. Today too, I am fully committed to this struggle,” she said.