It exposes hatred towards poor, Mahatma Gandhi: Siddaramaiah on Centre’s move to rename MGNREGA

Bengaluru, Dec 16 The Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is attempting to change the name and structure of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), has itself exposed its hatred towards the poor and Mahatma Gandhi, said Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah.

A press statement by Chief Minister Shri Siddaramaiah released on Tuesday in this regard stated, "Implemented by the UPA government 20 years ago, the MGNREGA scheme has played a crucial role in eradicating unemployment and poverty in rural areas. This scheme, which guarantees the right to employment to every individual, has received praise from economists both in India and abroad.”

“However, while MGNREGA was a genuine form of employment guarantee, the proposed new structure under the Narendra Modi government strips away that guarantee and places the assurance of work at the whims of political leaders. This will further deepen caste discrimination and social inequality," the CM highlighted.

The NDA government has altered the very structure of MGNREGA, a scheme whose entire expenditure was earlier borne by the Central government, by shifting nearly 40 per cent of the cost onto the state governments. This stands as clear evidence of the anti-federal attitude that Prime Minister Modi has followed ever since coming to power, Siddaramaiah said.

“This move will also increase the migration of poor people in search of work, as the proposed form does not guarantee employment in their own location — forcing families to travel long distances to survive,” he added.

Naming this scheme after Mahatma Gandhi, who sowed the dream of Gram Swaraj, was a meaningful decision. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi indulges in praising Gandhi during his foreign tours, within the country, he has consistently engaged in attempts to erase Gandhi’s legacy from key national programmes. From a parivar that seeks to glorify Gandhi’s assassin, Godse, what different conduct can one really expect? Siddaramaiah questioned.

Narendra Modi is widely known for simply changing the names of landmark schemes launched by the UPA government rather than preserving or strengthening them. It would be more appropriate for this government to start a “Ministry of Name Change,” with the Prime Minister himself holding that portfolio, he criticised.

"More than 25 flagship programmes launched during earlier governments were merely renamed or repackaged by the present regime. The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was rechristened as the Swachh Bharat Mission, while the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account scheme was rebranded as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

Similarly, the Rajiv Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana was subsumed into the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana, and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was transformed into the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). These changes reflect a consistent pattern of altering names rather than fundamentally strengthening or expanding the original intent of these welfare initiatives," CM Siddaramaiah stated.

"Our party and government strongly condemn this anti-people decision of the Narendra Modi government, which has snatched food from the plates of the poor, insulted Bapu, and attempted to strangle state governments financially. We will launch a statewide agitation against this move," he stated.

The responsibility of preserving the MGNREGA scheme in its original form must also be taken up by the lakhs of beneficiaries of the scheme. They must hold the BJP leaders of the state accountable and exert pressure on them to raise their voices against this injustice, rising above party lines, CM Siddaramaiah concluded.

Taking to social media X, Minister for RDPR, IT and BT Priyank Kharge stated, "Over the past three years, the Narendra Modi-led Union government has significantly reduced the number of person-days allocated to Karnataka under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)."

"In 2023-24, Karnataka was allotted around 14 crore person-days. This was reduced to 13 crore person-days in 2024-25, and further cut to just 9 crore person-days in 2025-26. In total, Karnataka has been denied 6 crore person-days over the last three years," Minister Kharge stated.

This scheme is an employment right for the poor. Over the past three years alone, as many as 80.25 lakh poor families in Karnataka have been provided employment under this scheme. Of these, 25.63 lakh families belong to the Scheduled Castes, while 9.48 lakh families are from the Scheduled Tribes, he stated.

"Across the state, from 2023 till date, more than 15.94 lakh rural assets have been created at a total cost of Rs 21,411 crore.

Diluting such a revolutionary scheme — a programme based on the employment rights of the poor — and attempting to convert it into a discretionary programme dependent on the whims of a handful of Central government officials is nothing short of an unpardonable offence," Minister Kharge charged.

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