Resist Conspiracy to Scrap MGNREGA; Scrap the VB-G-RAM-G Bill 2025

Oppose the RSS Agenda to Replace Mahatma Gandhi With G-RAM-G
Strengthen MGNREGA and Ensure 200 Days of Work Annually

Vijoo Krishnan
General Secretary

Ashok Dhawale
President

The AIKS condemns the sinister move of the BJP-led NDA Government to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act with the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 (VB-GRAMG Bill). We oppose the move to remove the name of Mahatma Gandhi at the behest of the RSS and replace it with an acronym that would read as G-RAM-G. This is with an ulterior motive; the proposed Bill will lead to dilution of provisions of the original Act and limit the right to work guaranteed by it. AIKS demands that the fraudulent Bill be withdrawn forthwith.

The MGNREGA was a result of struggles by the organisations of agricultural labour and the peasantry with the Left playing a decisive role in making it a demand-driven law applicable throughout the year. When there is absence of agricultural work or in times of natural calamities like droughts, the demand for work increases; since it MGNREGA is demand-driven, it was mandatory that the budgetary allocation be increased to meet the demand. Prohibiting work during ‘agricultural peak season’ would eventually lead to rendering the objective of the MGNREGA redundant. The ‘agricultural peak season’ could cover the sowing and harvest seasons in both Rabi and Kharif seasons and certain agricultural zones would have three crops. This ‘peak-season’ will be elastic in nature and can be stretched literally for most part of the year to deny work under the proposed legislation. Claims that it will provide 125 days of work is bogus as even under the demand-driven MGNREGA guaranteeing work throughout the year, the average days of work in a year was below 50.

Across the country, even during these so-called ‘peak seasons’, the opportunities of work are falling due to mechanisation. The option of working under MGNREGA was a guarantee that the rural labourers get minimum wages and could have bargaining power to ensure better wages while working in agricultural operations. Men and women were assured of an equal wage while under agricultural operations women never are paid at par with men. The rural rich and landlords have always taken a stance against MGNREGA and the BJP-led NDA is showing its class character by coming with this Bill. The earlier changes like digital attendance that led to denial of work and exploitation are legalised by the proposed Bill.

In the last 11 years, the Narendra Modi led NDA Government starved the MGNREGA of funds and through this Bill it is forcing states to bear 40 per cent of the expenses. It is centralizing decision-making and denying federal rights of the states. In the context of the NDA Government’s consistent efforts to financially strangle states, especially those ruled by opposition parties, such a provision will be the proverbial last nail on the Scheme. This Bill is clearly in the same nature as the anti-worker labor laws and will exclude a large number of rural workers from job opportunities leading to distress migration. AIKS calls upon all sections to rise up in protest against this sinister move. AIKS will join hands with organizations of agricultural workers, workers, women and youth.