Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday, launched a scathing attack on the Centre, accusing it of undermining the rights of states and dismantling the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Gandhi made the statements during a press conference chaired after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting. Gandhi claimed that the latest decisions by the centre are a “direct assault on state autonomy, infrastructure development and the rights of marginalised communities”.
“This is an attack on the states of India because they are simply taking away money that belongs to the states and decision-making power that belongs to the states. This is an attack on the infrastructure of those states because MGNREGA used to build infrastructure,” he said.
Gandhi further said, “MNREGA is just not a work program. It is a conceptual framework, a development framework, that, by the way, has been appreciated across the world. Kharge ji mentioned that he visited 16 countries and every single country where he went appreciated the fact that our government had come out with an entirely new development rights-based concept.”
During the recent Parliament Winter Session, the Centre passed the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G) Bill, 2025, replacing the MGNREGA Act, 2005
. The Opposition protested against the Bill, tearing copies of the new legislation and storming the well of the House.
