NewsGate Press Network

A day after the winter session of Parliament adjourned sine die specially after the treasury benches approved the new rural employment guarantee scheme, the  Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi released a video message on Saturday the 20th of December 2025.

Sonia accused the Modi government of bulldozing the MGNREGA, and asserted that the “black law” that seeks to repeal it will be defied by the lakhs of party workers across the country.

She said that by weakening MGNREGA, the Modi government had attacked the interests of crores of farmers, labourers, and landless across the country.

She alleged that over the past 11 years, the Centre had ignored the interests of the rural poor.

Addressing the rural population, Gandhi said she vividly remembers the day 20 years ago, when Manmohan Singh was prime minister, and the MGNREGA Act was passed in Parliament by consensus.

Congress has been sticking to their point of view that MGNREGA was a revolutionary step and it became a means of livelihood for the deprived, the exploited, and the poorest of the poor.

Sonia Gandhi alleged that the new law is a “matter of great regret that just recently, the government ran a bulldozer over MGNREGA. Not only was Mahatma Gandhi’s name removed, but the form and structure of MGNREGA was changed arbitrarily without any deliberation, without consulting anyone, without taking the opposition into confidence.”

She said under the new law, who gets how much employment, where and in what manner, will be decided by the government in Delhi, which is far removed from the ground realities.

Claiming that the Congress had a major role in bringing and implementing MGNREGA, she said it was never a party-specific matter.

committed to fighting against this black law. All Congress leaders like me and lakhs of workers stand with you,” Gandhi said in her video statement.

It may be recalled that The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote, hours after the Lok Sabha cleared it on Thursday.

The new law seeks to replace the 20-year-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA.

The proposed bill that guarantees 125 days of rural wage employment every year was met with vociferous protests by the Opposition.

Defending the bill in both the Houses the union Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asserted that it was needed to fix shortcomings in the old scheme.

Opposition Congress party is going ahead to launch its country-wide agitation on 27th of December 2025 strongly protesting against the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the MGNREGA.