Govt Under Fire Over New Rural Employment Bill, Opposition Questions Dropping of Gandhi's Name

PTI, NEW DELHI, DEC 15, 2025 : The Union government came under sharp criticism on Monday over a Bill that seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and replace it with a new rural employment law, with Opposition MPs asking why the name of the father of the nation is being removed.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-GRAM G) Bill, 2025, has been listed in the Lok Sabha in the supplementary list of business issued on Monday. It seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 and establish a "rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047", by providing 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.

Congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, said the panel made several recommendations, including those for increasing the number of workdays and wages under the MGNREGA scheme.

"I don't know what problem they have with the name of Bapu, but they wanted to finish it because it was a Congress scheme. I head the Parliamentary panel, and we made so many recommendations – to increase the number of days to 150, to increase the wages... the states have pending dues, West Bengal is not getting funds. They have brought a Bill, but why have they removed the name of Mahatma Gandhi?" he posed.

Asked about the government's move, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said, "Whenever the name of a scheme is changed, there are so many changes that have to be made in offices, stationery... for which money is spent. So, what is the benefit? Why is it being done?"

"Why is Mahatma Gandhi's name being removed? Mahatma Gandhi is considered the tallest leader not just in the country but in the world; so, removing his name, I really don't understand what the objective is. What is their intention?" she told reporters in the Parliament House complex. "Even when we are debating, it is on other issues and not the real issues of the people. Time is being wasted, money is being wasted, they are disrupting themselves," the MP from Kerala's Wayanad added.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien termed the government's move "an insult to Mahatma Gandhi." "But then, are you surprised? These are the same people who hero-worshipped the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi. They want to insult Mahatma Gandhi and remove him from history," he said.

CPIM General Secretary MA Baby called it an attempt to hide the fact that the scheme has been "dismantled." "The Union government's grandstanding over a total revamp of the MGNREGA is an attempt to hide the startling fact that the basic rights-based framework under which it operated is being dismantled, and the central share brought down drastically," he claimed.