Modi grudgingly realised importance of MNREGA
Sonia flays government for slyly using UPA-era programme for poor
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for using the UPA-era flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to benefit the poor during lockdown while the BJP had earlier derided it for years.
In an article written for a national daily, The Indian Express, Sonia Gandhi stated, the Modi government has grudgingly come around to the significance of the programme.
“My plea to the government is, this is a time of national crisis, not a time to play politics. This is not a BJP versus Congress issue. You have a powerful mechanism at hand, please use it to help the people of India in their time of need,” she added.
The MNREGA, 2005, is a shining example of a radical and rational systemic change. It is radical because it transferred power to the poorest of the poor and enabled them to escape hunger, the article read. It is rational because it puts money directly in the hands of those who need it most. It has proved its worth in the years it has been in existence.
Preventing starvation
A government that sought to denigrate it, undermine it, has come to reluctantly rely on it. Along with the Public Distribution System put in place by an earlier Congress government, it is the mainstay for our poorest and most vulnerable citizens in preventing starvation and destitution wherever implemented in letter and spirit, especially in today’s Covid-19 crisis, it added.
Let us not forget that the notification of the MNREGA in September 2005 as an Act of Parliament came about because of a people’s movement after years of struggle by civil society, Sonia Gandhi stated in the article.
The Congress party listened to their voices. It became a commitment in our 2004 manifesto and those of us who pressed hardest for it are proud that the UPA government implemented it as soon as feasible, she added.
The idea was simple: Any citizen in rural India now had the legal right to demand work and was guaranteed 100 days of work with minimum wages provided by the government.
And it proved its worth very quickly — a grass roots, demanddriven, Right to Work programme, unprecedented in its scale and architecture, focused on poverty alleviation. Millions have been saved from hunger and worse in the 15 years since its inception.