#Ajayan
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (GRAMIN) - the VB-G RAM G Bill currently before Parliament - seeks to repeal and replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the flagship rural employment programme of the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.
Before turning to the dismantling of the rural employment guarantee scheme, one must note a familiar pattern: the BJP-led Centre’s sustained drive to wipe out every visible trace of the Congress era, from emblems and road names to projects and institutions.
Many of the BJP government’s marquee schemes are little more than rechristened versions of earlier programmes - a familiar script with altered credits. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is a rebranding of National Girl Child Day; Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana mirrors the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account; Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana is derived from the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana; PM Poshan has its roots in Mid-Day Meal Scheme; and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation is essentially the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Even the much-touted “Make in India” echoes the National Manufacturing Policy, while Swachh Bharat is merely an extension of the Nirmal Gram Yojana. How effectively or ineffectively the schemes were implemented then is what matters. Governance is measured by delivery, not relabelling. And borrowing, however loudly advertised, still betrays a poverty of ideas.
The Mahatma has never truly been a BJP icon, ceremonial wreath-laying at Rajghat on October 2 notwithstanding. In an era when Nathuram Godse is openly lionised, it is hardly surprising that the BJP has chosen to erase Gandhi’s name from a scheme that has played a pivotal role in guaranteeing rural employment. From farm work to the construction of canals and roads across rural India, the programme has significantly strengthened rural infrastructure while securing livelihoods for millions of the poorest.
The irony is stark. Even as the government invokes Gandhi’s ideal of gram swaraj, the programme undermines decentralisation at its core. The Centre’s share has been slashed from 90 per cent under the earlier scheme to 60 per cent, leaving States, already fiscally strangled by Central policies, struggling to stay afloat. Federalism is thus reduced to a formality, with States forced to plead for funds even to run an employment scheme. Gandhi’s gram swaraj stood for decentralised power, self-reliance and holistic community development and the new proposal dismantles each of these principles at their very foundation.
What was once a demand-driven programme is being recast as an allocation-driven one. In the post-Covid years, budgetary support steadily declined, with a sudden hike in the latest Budget, less a course correction than a prelude to a larger redesign. The statutory guarantee of 100 days, achieved by barely seven per cent of households and averaging just 45 days nationwide, has now been raised to 125, creating the illusion of expanded employment while leaving structural failures untouched. Worse, so-called “tech reforms”, from digital attendance verification to Aadhaar-linked payments, have only compounded the hardships of beneficiaries, turning entitlement into exclusion.
Even the nature of work under the scheme, which was earlier the prerogative of local rural bodies, will now be dictated by the Centre. Given its track record, there is little doubt that allocations will be steered towards States where political dividends can be easily harvested. The relaxation to ensure labour supply during agricultural season will only help the big landlords with abundant supply of cheap labour.
The proposed Bill is part of a larger political project and bears little resemblance to the ideals of the Mahatma it claims to invoke. When Congress members raised Gandhi’s image in Parliament, they were met with “Jai Ram” slogans; as if the invocation of RAM in the scheme’s name was justification enough.
The nationalism now being propagated is severed from India’s civilisational ethos and instead mimics borrowed Western ideas of centralised power and enforced uniformity. Even the Constitution is treated with casual disregard. Article 348 mandates English for the Supreme Court, High Courts and all legislative texts like Bills, Acts and regulations, unless Parliament decides otherwise. Yet new laws are increasingly drafted and foregrounded in Hindi and Sanskrit, as though national spirit resides in only two languages, reducing constitutional pluralism to a linguistic litmus test.