Shashi Tharoor Calls MGNREGA Renaming Controversy “Unfortunate”

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday called the debate over renaming MGNREGA “unfortunate,” amid criticism from the Opposition of the Centre’s proposed changes to the scheme.

Responding to concerns about the proposed Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 (VB–G RAM G), Tharoor said that the problem lay more in how the issue was being framed than in the renaming itself.

In a post on X, he argued that the debate wrongly suggested a conflict with Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals.

“The concept of Gram Swaraj and the ideal of Ram Rajya were never competing forces; they were the twin pillars of Gandhiji’s consciousness,” he wrote, adding that portraying the change as a rejection of Gandhi’s legacy ignored the “profound symbiosis” between the two ideas.

Tharoor also cautioned against creating “a division where none existed,” noting that even Gandhi’s final words, invoking “Ram,” reflected the harmony between these principles.

His remarks come at a time when the Congress and other Opposition parties have strongly criticised the Narendra Modi-led government over the proposed Bill, which seeks to repeal MGNREGA and replace it with a new rural employment framework aligned with the government’s Viksit Bharat @2047 vision.

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