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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and LoP Rahul Gandhi at the National MGNREGA workers’ convention on Thursday. (Express photo by Anil Sharma)
LEADER OF Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the Narendra Modi government’s objectives in repealing MGNREGA is the same as they were in bringing the “three black farm laws”, and urged workers to take a cue from farmers and stand united to demand the rollback of VB-G RAM G Act.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the repeal of MGNREGA was part of a “conspiracy to erase” Mahatma Gandhi’s name from public memory and asserted that his party will strongly raise the issue during the upcoming Budget session of Parliament.
Addressing the national MGNREGA workers’ convention organised by Rachnatmak Congress at Jawahar Bhawan, Gandhi said, “The MGNREGA movement is a big opportunity for the poor people who believe in the Constitution, democracy and the idea of India… if they stand together, Modi ji will back off and MGNREGA would be reinstated.”
“The idea behind it (MGNREGA) was that anyone in need of work could demand it with dignity. MGNREGA was run through the third tier system — the Panchayati Raj system. MGNREGA had the voice of the people, their rights… a concept which Narendra Modi and the BJP want to finish off,” Gandhi said.
“The Modi government had brought in black laws against farmers, which the farmers managed to stop. I remember, in Parliament and on streets, along with the farmers, we put pressure on the government and got those laws repealed,” he said.
Gandhi claimed that the same concept that the government tried on farmers it is now trying on workers. The idea is that the Central government in Delhi will decide how much money to send to which state, Gandhi said, adding that more money will go to BJP-ruled states.
“Farm laws were an attack on the Constitution, so was demonetisation, flawed GST. What is the name of this new law ….I don’t know,” he said with some in the audience responding with the VB-G RAM G acronym.
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“These people want to bring back the India of pre-Independence where one king used to decide everything, had all the assets and did as he pleased. Their intention is not to stop because they want to change the structure of modern India,” Gandhi said.
“There is only one way to stop them, workers have been shown the way by farmers. If we stand together unitedly, they are cowardly people… you can decide the name of the scheme and its modalities,” he said.
The Congress launched ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’, a 45-day nationwide campaign against the repeal of the UPA-era rural job guarantee scheme — MGNREGA. Around 400 MGNREGA workers and activists from over two dozen states took part in the convention on Thursday.
Addressing the convention, Congress president Kharge asserted that the Congress would keep fighting until the government withdraws the new Act and fully restores MGNREGA.
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“The Budget Session is about to begin. We will strongly raise the issue of MGNREGA (repeal),” Kharge said.
“We will have to fight together to bring back MGNREGA. In this fight, the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi ji, Rahul Gandhi ji and every single worker is with you,” the Congress president said.
Kharge also wondered why many other parties were not raising that issue. “I want to say that we should try to protect our legal rights. I have seen many parties still not talking about it (the repeal). When our leader Rahul ji raised this issue, no voice with that strength came from any other party. They speak on their own issues in the respective state.”
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