Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday led opposition protest against the Centre’s new Bill to replace the rural job guarantee scheme MGNREGS, alleging that it would weaken the law and should be withdrawn. The Wayanad MP also said no law should be passed because of “someone’s obsession and prejudice”. The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 seeks to replace MGNREGA, which was implemented in 2006.
Speaking in Lok Sabha opposing the VB-G RAM G Bill, 2025, Vadra said that the bill “should not be passed without taking the advice of the House and without any discussion”.
“This bill should be taken back and the government should table a new bill… Mahatma Gandhi was not from my family, but he was still like a member of my family. This is the emotion of the entire nation. This bill should be sent to Standing Committee for further deliberations. No bill should be tabled and passed because of someone’s obsession and prejudice,” she said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor – – whose relationship with the Congress is on thin ice after praise of PM Modi – also came out swinging Tuesday against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s move to replace the MGNREGS.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha this afternoon, Tharoor called it “immoral” to remove Gandhi’s name and simultaneously urged the government to not “sully Ram’s name”.
CPI (M), a key member of the Opposition INDIA bloc, meanwhile has urged the opposition to fight unitedly against Centre’s move.
VB-G RAM G bill an attempt to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s name, says Congress
The Congress has said that the VB-G RAM G bill, which, it alleges is an attempt to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s name, shows how “hollow and hypocritical” Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s gestures of paying homage to the Father of the Nation are.
The opposition party has alleged that the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, “attacks the soul” of rights-based guarantee by replacing it with a scheme “stacked against” the states and the workers and defies the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi.
VB-G RAM G bill guarantees 125 days of employment
The VB-G RAM G bill aims at aligning rural employment and development with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. It guarantees 125 days of employment, not 100 days as under MGNREGA.
“Of these, 60 days have been structured so that they do not overlap with the agricultural sowing season. In a way, this scheme prioritises water security, rural infrastructure, livelihoods, and environmental and climate resilience. Therefore, this bill is a boon. Through this bill, I believe a major transformation will take place in rural areas, as MGNREGA has been upgraded after 20 years,” BJP MP Dinesh Sharma told PTI.
According to a copy of the bill, it will provide a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.
Within six months from the date of commencement of the VB-G RAM G Act, states will have to make a scheme consistent with the provisions of the new law.
The financial liability would be shared between the Centre and the state governments. It would be 90:10 for the Northeastern states and Himalayan states, and 60:40 for all other states and Union territories with legislature. For the UTs without a legislature, the whole cost would be borne by the Centre.
The MGNREGS is a 100 per cent centrally sponsored scheme.