Viksit Bharat Act and the Unmaking of India’s Right to Work

In the run-up to the surprise enactment of the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act 2025 (VB–G RAM G Act), there was strong speculation that the nomenclature of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, (MGNREGA) which the new law replaced, would be changed.

The change effected by the Narendra Modi government in the right to livelihood law is not limited to its name. A new law is in place, replacing the two-decade-old MGNREGA. While the opposition has attacked the government for removing “Mahatma Gandhi” from the title and accused it of promoting its Hindutva interests through the acronym, it is also up in arms over what it describes as a demolition of the right to employment and an assault on the rights of the States.

The Modi government sprung a surprise towards the end of the short Winter Session of the Parliament with the passage of the VB–G RAM G Act, overhauling the employment guarantee law. The controversial move is already reverberating politically on account of the immense significance of the “right to work” law. The new law could also put further strain on Centre-State relations because of the additional financial burden it places on the States.

The VB–G RAM G Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 18 and by the Rajya Sabha on December 19 amidst an opposition uproar, with the government not heeding the opposition’s demand that the legislation be first scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.

Also Read | MGNREGA under attack from the Narendra Modi government

The BJP is engaging in a political hard sell of the new law, presenting it as an improved version of the MGNREGA, wherein the number of work days has been increased from 100 days to 125 days. The party says the law will strengthen rural livelihoods with better planning of works and more efficient plugging of siphoning of funds. The non-BJP parties, however, accuse the government of demolishing the employment guarantee Act by altering its fundamental character and shifting the financial burden to the States.

The new law may have come as a surprise in the Winter Session, but the opposition leaders say they could see it coming, given Prime Minister Modi’s earlier stated views on the scheme. They allege there was a financial stifling of the scheme in the last 11 years, and say it clearly showed that the BJP-led Centre was not interested in continuing with it.

Modi’s earlier stance

As Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi is known to have been critical of the MGNREGA. When he took over as Prime Minister, there was intense speculation over the fate of the law. Modi addressed this speculation on the floor of the Lok Sabha on February 27, 2015, when, in his reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address, he said: “I keep hearing talk that the government is planning to scrap MGNREGA, or already has. I know that you doubt my experience in many areas, but I am sure you will admit that I have political acumen. My political acumen tells me that MGNREGA is a living monument to your failures.”

He further said, “Don’t worry, whatever has to be added will be added. Whatever strength has to be given, we will give it. Because we want the people to know who has left these ruins, who forced you to dig these pits even after so many years [of Independence].”

The Congress views the enactment of the VB–G RAM G Act as a move by the Modi government to erase the imprint of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on the legislation and to have its own stamp on the right to work law, even as it accuses the government of having weakened the statute.

Origins of MGNREGA

The MGNREGA was the most significant of the rights-based initiatives taken by the UPA government, especially since it catered to the livelihood requirements of the poorest of the poor in rural areas. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in 2005, providing 100 days of guaranteed employment to rural households. The National Advisory Council (NAC), an advisory group set up in 2004 and headed by the UPA’s Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, had conceptualised the law guaranteeing the right to work. Mahatma Gandhi’s name was added to the title of the law in 2009.

The Congress has, in the intervening years, asserted its authorship of the law while claiming to fight for the rights of the underprivileged and has attacked the Modi government for allegedly undermining the law to the detriment of the rural poor.

Sonia Gandhi’s intervention

On March 18, 2025, Sonia Gandhi made a rare intervention in the Rajya Sabha during the zero hour to attack the Modi government for “systematically clipping” the MGNREGA. She said the BJP-ruled Centre has taken deliberate steps to undermine the scheme, including slashing budgetary allocations, delaying wage payments, and imposing digital hurdles that exclude the most vulnerable. “Despite rising demand for work, the government is cutting funds, forcing States to bear the burden and leaving millions of job-seekers helpless,” she said, and pointed out that the budgetary allocation for the scheme has remained stagnant at Rs.86,000 crore.

In a video message released after the passage of the VB–G RAM G Act, Sonia Gandhi clearly indicated that her party was ready to hit the streets in protest against the new law. For the Congress and the other opposition parties, the replacement of MGNREGA with the VB–G RAM G Act provides a potentially evocative issue with which to take on the Modi government.

In the message, Sonia Gandhi said: “Congress had a big role to play in bringing and implementing MGNREGA. However, it was never a party-related matter. It was a scheme meant for the welfare of people and was in the interests of the nation. The Modi government has, by weakening the law, assaulted the interests of crores of farmers, labourers, and the landless in the villages. We are ready to resist this attack. Twenty years ago, I had fought for the right to livelihood of our poor brothers and sisters. Even today, I am committed to fighting against this black law. Like me, all the leaders of the Congress and lakhs of party workers are standing by you.”

Funding changes

The opposition-ruled States were already up in arms over inadequate allocation of funds by the Centre for MGNREGA and complained about the Centre’s failure to clear the dues it owed to the States on account of the implementation of the scheme. The opposition parties fear that under the new law, the alleged discrimination they face in financial allocation for schemes will only worsen.

Under MGNREGA, the Centre effectively took on 90 per cent of the financial burden, with the States pitching in with the remaining 10 per cent. According to Section 22(1) of the new law, the Centre will bear 60 per cent of the cost, with the States required to take care of 40 per cent of the expenses. The funding ratio would be 90:10, with the Centre required to foot 90 per cent of the budgetary requirement, in the case of the north-eastern region and the Himalayan States.

Apart from the changes in the funding pattern, the opposition parties are also protesting the planning and the implementation framework of the scheme under the new law. The States will no longer be deciding their financial demand proposals. Under the VB–G RAM G Act, the Centre will determine the State-wise normative allocation for a financial year. Section 4(5) of the Act states: “The Central Government shall determine the state-wise normative allocation for each financial year, based on objective parameters as may be prescribed by the Central Government.”

Centre-State conflict: The West Bengal case

The Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal was engaged in a conflict with the Centre since 2022 over the latter not releasing funds to the State for the implementation of MGNREGA, citing non-compliance of norms under the scheme. On October 27, 2025, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by the Union government appealing against an order of the Calcutta High Court directing the prospective implementation of the scheme in the State from August 1, 2025.

The Trinamool Congress-BJP tussle over the job guarantee law is especially significant because West Bengal goes to the Assembly election in 2026, and the change in the law—and before that, the pause in the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme in the State—is expected to be raised by the Trinamool Congress during the elections. The party has attacked the Centre for “blocking” Rs.52,000 crore due to the State as wages for workers under the MGNREGA scheme and says that now, instead of paying what is due, it has scrapped the law itself.

Also Read | West Bengal left high and dry after Centre freezes MGNREGS funds for State

“This government stopped the MGNREGA scheme in Bengal. Bengal started its own scheme, ‘Karmashree’, to provide employment to job card holders…. Today, at 1.09 pm, the Chief Minister of West Bengal changed the name of her scheme ‘Karmashree’ and named it the Mahatma Gandhi Karmashree Scheme,” Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien said in the Rajya Sabha during the discussion on the Bill.

Opposition protests

The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, along with its alliance partners, organised protests across the State on December 24 against the VB–G RAM G Act. The DMK-led alliance demanded that the Union government immediately withdraw the new law, restore MGNREGA, ensure adequate funding, and protect the interests of States and panchayats.

“The proposed changes threaten to convert this right into a discretionary benefit, leaving workers at the mercy of availability and administrative discretion. The party has made it clear that it will not remain a silent spectator while the hard-won right to work is diluted and rural livelihoods are pushed into uncertainty,” the DMK said in a statement.

The unmaking of MGNREGA and enactment of the VB–G RAM G Act have added a new issue to the political discourse ahead of a crucial election season.