MGNREGA rename row: Tharoor calls controversy ‘unfortunate’

MGNREGA, enacted in 2005, was one of the UPA’s flagship initiatives. Sonia Gandhi, then UPA chairperson, had made an employment guarantee a core promise of the alliance’s 2004 election manifesto and played a key role in pushing the legislation through as chair of the National Advisory Council, despite resistance at various stages.The VB–G RAM G Bill, 2025, which is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha, seeks to repeal the MGNREGA Act and establish a new statutory framework for rural employment aligned with the government’s Viksit Bharat @2047 vision. According to the draft bill, the proposed scheme promises 125 days of unskilled manual work per rural household annually, but also envisages changes in funding patterns, including a higher cost-sharing burden on states, and the creation of new central and state-level councils to oversee implementation.Tharoor’s intervention has also come amid renewed scrutiny of his relationship with the Congress leadership. Last week, he skipped a meeting of Congress Lok Sabha MPs chaired by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, citing prior commitments, according to party sources quoted by ANI.His absence followed a series of missed party meetings in recent weeks, including a Congress Working Committee-related meeting on November 30 ahead of the winter session of Parliament, which he attributed to travel from Kerala, and another meeting on the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, for which he cited health reasons.These absences have drawn attention as Tharoor has, during the same period, attended several high-profile events where senior Opposition leaders were not present, including a lecture by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a state banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu for visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.



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