Page 6 - The Indian EYE 122625

EYE ON INDIA DECEMBER 26, 2025 | The Indian Eye 6

From Gandhi to “Viksit Bharat”:

How a Change of Name Turned NREGA

into a Political Battlefield

The BJP’s move to replace MGNREGA with a newly christened rural employment scheme
has ignited a larger ideological clash, where symbolism, legacy and control over welfare

narratives matter as much as wages and workdays.

OUR BUREAU deeply the name itself has become a
proxy for ideological identity.
New Delhi
The BJP, in turn, accuses the
he bitter parliamentary battle opposition of nostalgia politics. Its
over the Viksit Bharat Guar- leaders argue that increasing work-
Tantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika days proves commitment to labour-
Mission (Gramin) Bill has revealed ers, and that opposition protests
that the fiercest fight is not only over reveal discomfort with losing owner-
rural jobs or funding formulas, but ship of a flagship scheme. BJP MP
over names — and what they repre- Dinesh Sharma dismissed criticism
sent in India’s politics. By replacing as negativity from parties unable to
the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural accept electoral defeat, insisting the
Employment Guarantee Act (MGN- bill represents “a day of change for
REGA) with a new acronym-heavy everyday citizens”.
scheme, the BJP has triggered an op- Beyond Parliament, the clash ex-
position backlash that sees the move as poses a larger pattern in Indian poli-
an attempt to erase both a rights-based tics: the struggle to rename welfare as
framework and the symbolic power a means of reshaping political mem-
of Gandhi from the welfare state. ory. From housing to toilets to food
For the government, the new law distribution, successive governments
is framed as reform. It raises guar- have sought to stamp their imprint
anteed employment from 100 to 125 Women labourers carry their equipment as they go to work under the NREGS in Rajasthan (ANI) on schemes, often sidelining prede-
days, promises higher wages and links cessors. What makes MGNREGA
rural labour to entrepreneurship and 2009, it carried legal guarantees — funding formula shifts 40 per cent of different is its legal character and
livelihoods. Union Agriculture Min- work on demand, compensation for the burden to states, compared to Gandhian branding, which gave it
ister Shivraj Singh Chouhan defend- delays, and a central funding com- MGNREGA’s largely central financ- moral authority beyond budget lines.
ed the bill as pro-poor and accused mitment that insulated poorer states. ing. Opposition leaders warn this Whether the new law delivers
the Congress of selectively invoking Over time, it also became a powerful will hit fiscally weaker states hardest, more work or not, the immediate
Gandhi while failing his ideals in political symbol: a Congress-era law forcing rationing of work. They also consequence is political polarisation.
practice. BJP leaders argue that wel- that embedded social justice, decen- argue that provisions allowing states Congress has promised nationwide
fare should evolve with aspirations, tralisation and Gram Swaraj into to pre-notify no-work periods during protests and vowed to restore MGN-
not remain frozen as monuments to statute. For the BJP, which once de- peak agricultural seasons undermine REGA “with Gandhi’s name” if it
past governments. rided MGNREGA as a “living mon- the demand-driven nature of em- returns to power. Comparisons with
For the opposition, however, the ument” to Congress failure, that sym- ployment, turning a legal right into the repealed farm laws underline the
renaming is the politics. Congress, bolism has long been uncomfortable. an administrative option. opposition’s strategy: mobilise street
Trinamool Congress, AAP and other The VB–G RAM G Bill reflects That is why the opposition’s rhet- pressure by portraying the change as
INDIA bloc parties see the remov- the BJP’s alternative welfare narra- oric has been so charged. Congress anti-poor and anti-farmer.
al of Gandhi’s name as a deliberate tive. Instead of rights, it emphasises leader Mallikarjun Kharge described In that sense, the politics of
ideological statement, not a technical guarantees linked to performance and the bill as an attempt to “dismantle names has become inseparable from
change. Walkouts, midnight speech- state participation. Instead of Gand- the last safety net of the rural poor”, the politics of welfare. For the BJP,
es and street protests have all cen- hi, it foregrounds “Viksit Bharat” invoking constitutional directives renaming is about redefining devel-
tred on a single charge: that the BJP and references to Ram Rajya, align- and international praise for MGN- opment on its own terms. For the
is dismantling a constitutional “Right ing rural welfare with the govern- REGA. Trinamool Congress MP opposition, retaining Gandhi’s name
to Work” and replacing it with a dis- ment’s broader civilisational vocab- Sagarika Ghose went further, calling is about defending rights, legacy and
cretionary scheme wrapped in na- ulary. Supporters argue this signals the move a “second assassination of constitutional promises. As the de-
tionalist branding. confidence and ambition — a shift Mahatma Gandhi”, while protest bate spills from Parliament to the
MGNREGA was never just a from safety nets to ladders of growth. banners accused the government of streets, one thing is clear: in India,
programme. Enacted in 2005 and But critics say the name change killing MGNREGA just as it “killed what a scheme is called can matter
renamed after Mahatma Gandhi in masks substantive dilution. The new Gandhi”. Such language reflects how almost as much as what it does.

www.TheIndianEYE.com