NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday criticised the Union government over the Cabinet’s approval of a Bill to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), alleging that the move reflects an attempt to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and mask what it described as the Centre’s neglect of the rural employment scheme.

Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said the renaming was aimed at claiming credit for a programme that was conceived and implemented by the previous Congress-led UPA government. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier described MGNREGA as a “monument of failure”.

Calling the decision “yet another way of erasing Mahatma Gandhi from our national psyche”, Venugopal said the move was particularly significant in rural India, where Gandhi believed “India’s soul resides”. In a post on X, he alleged that the change was cosmetic and intended to divert attention from what he termed the systematic weakening of the scheme. Venugopal said MGNREGA workers across the country have been demanding higher wages, while allocations for the scheme have been reduced year after year.

He alleged that delays in wage payments have led to mounting arrears and claimed this reflected a “carefully planned strategy” to gradually undermine the programme. According to him, the government lacked genuine intent to deliver welfare and was resorting to symbolic measures instead.