Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Modi government of dismantling two decades of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in a single day, calling the newly passed VB-G RAM G legislation “anti-village” and “anti-state”.

In a post on X, Gandhi said the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill was not a revamp of MGNREGA but a fundamental dilution of its core principles. “Last night, the Modi government demolished twenty years of MGNREGA in one day,” he said.

"It demolishes the rights-based, demand-driven guarantee and turns it into a rationed scheme which is controlled from Delhi. It is anti-state and anti-village by design."

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also said that MGNREGA gave the rural worker bargaining power.

"With real options, exploitation and distress migration fell, wages increased, working conditions improved, all while building and reviving rural infrastructure. That leverage is precisely what this government wants to break," Gandhi alleged.

He said by capping work and creating more ways to deny it, the VB-G RAM G Bill weakens the one instrument the rural poor had.

"We saw what MGNREGA meant during Covid. When the economy shut down and livelihoods collapsed, it kept crores from falling into hunger and debt," Gandhi claimed.

"It helped women the most year after year, with women contributing more than half the person-days, " the Congress leader said.

"When you ration a jobs programme, it is women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless workers and the poorest OBC communities who get pushed out first," he said.

He also criticised the manner in which the Bill was passed, alleging it was pushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny. Gandhi said the opposition’s demand to refer the Bill to a standing committee was rejected, despite its far-reaching impact on rural livelihoods.

“A law that rewires the rural social contract should not be rushed through without expert consultation and public hearings,” he said.

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of centralising power, Gandhi alleged that the government’s objective was to weaken labour and dilute the bargaining power of rural India, particularly among Dalits, OBCs and Adivasis, while projecting the move as reform.

Calling MGNREGA one of the world’s most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes, Gandhi said the Congress would oppose the new law.

“We will stand with workers, panchayats and states to defeat this move and ensure the law is withdrawn,” he said.

Parliament on Thursday night passed the VB-G RAM G Bill, which replaces the 20-year-old MGNREGA and promises 125 days of rural wage employment annually.

The Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha and later passed by the Rajya Sabha through a voice vote amid strong protests by opposition parties, who objected to the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme and alleged that the Centre was shifting a greater financial burden onto states.