New Delhi

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday alleged that the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was part of a “conspiracy to erase” Mahatma Gandhi’s name from public memory and asserted that the party would strongly raise the issue in the upcoming Budget session of Parliament.

Addressing the National MGNREGA Workers’ Convention organised by the Rachnatmak Congress here, Kharge accused the Modi government of dismantling the rights-based employment scheme to push the poor and marginalised into conditions akin to “bonded labour”.

“The Modi government is determined to end MGNREGA so that the oppressed and downtrodden can be handed over to the rich as bonded labourers, working at their whims,” the Congress chief alleged.

Kharge said MGNREGA, launched by the UPA in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, provided a legal guarantee of 100 days of employment to rural households, a right which was now being “systematically destroyed”.

“Abolishing MGNREGA is not merely an attack on the poor and weaker sections of rural India, it is a conspiracy to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s name from public memory and an assault on the vision of Gram Swaraj,” he claimed.

“This is the first time any government has dared to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from a scheme named after him. The nation will not tolerate this,” Kharge said.

The Congress president asserted that the party would continue to oppose the replacement of MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act and fight for the full restoration of the UPA-era law.

“The Budget session is about to begin and we will strongly raise the issue of MGNREGA repeal in Parliament,” he said.

Kharge also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of indulging in propaganda. “Narendra Modi says ‘I am a chaiwala’ only to get votes. Have you ever made tea and gone inside trains with a kettle? This is all drama to mislead people,” he said.

Alleging exclusion of workers from the scheme, Kharge said the introduction of Aadhaar-linked payments and digital attendance had deprived millions of labourers of work.

“The Modi government is determined to end the world’s largest employment guarantee programme by weakening it through technology and bureaucracy,” he alleged.

He further claimed that while MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of work, the government has failed to provide even 40 days of employment to rural workers.

Referring to UPA-era welfare legislation, Kharge said, “Sonia Gandhi ji ensured the Right to Work, Right to Food Security, Right to Education and Right to Information. If people do not fight today, they will lose these hard-earned rights.”

Warning against erosion of democratic rights, he said a time could come when only those with wealth, land and degrees would enjoy full political rights.

Drawing parallels with the farmers’ agitation, Kharge said labourers would have to raise a united voice to protect MGNREGA. “Just as farmers forced the repeal of black farm laws, labour comrades will have to fight for their rights,” he said.

The convention was attended by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, and Rachnatmak Congress chairperson Sandeep Dikshit, among others.

As a symbolic gesture, workers from across the country brought soil from their worksites, which was placed in plants in the presence of Kharge and Gandhi. Both leaders also posed wearing traditional ‘gamchhas’ and holding spades.

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The Congress launched its 45-day nationwide ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ on January 10, demanding withdrawal of the VB-G RAM G Act and restoration of MGNREGA as a rights-based law with panchayats retaining their original authority.