Guwahati: Congress slams NDA over renaming of MGNREGA

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Congress on Sunday mounted a sharp attack on the Modi-led NDA government over the renaming of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as VBG–Ramji, alleging that the move reflects political deceit and an attempt to weaken the world’s largest employment guarantee scheme.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, All India Congress Committee (AICC) National Spokesperson Dr. Ragini Nayak said, “Those who do not work themselves are the ones who spend their time renaming the work done by others. If the person who claims to work 18 hours a day had actually worked sincerely even for 18 months in the last 11 years, there would have been no need to rename the schemes implemented by the Congress.”

Dr. Nayak said that if one were to prepare a list of the number of Congress-implemented schemes whose names have been changed by the Modi government and then projected as its own, the exercise would take the entire day from morning till evening.  Dr. Nayak further said, “The BJP renamed the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan of the Manmohan Singh government as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The symbol of Swachh Bharat was Gandhiji’s spectacles. The BJP could appropriate Gandhiji’s spectacles, but it has never been able to adopt Gandhiji’s vision. The BJP and the RSS are filled with hatred towards Gandhiji, Nehru and other great national leaders. That is why the BJP did not hesitate to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the MGNREGA scheme.”

She said that the Modi-led NDA government is not limiting itself to merely renaming the scheme, but is also attempting to weaken MGNREGA itself.

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