For the Narendra Modi government, which has brought in the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name is only the trailer. The damage runs much deeper. The Bill obliterates the soul of a rights-based guarantee law and replaces it with a conditional, centrally controlled scheme opposed to the interests of both the states and the working class.

Under MGNREGA, the Centre was required to meet the full cost of wages for unskilled manual work, and up to three-fourths of the material cost of the scheme, as well as three-fourths of the wages for skilled and semi-skilled workers. Under RAM G, this will be converted into a 60:40 contribution for the majority of states and Union Territories with legislatures; 90:10 for the northeastern and Himalayan states and UTs (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir). States will now have to shell out around Rs 50,000-plus crore. Kerala alone will have to bear an additional Rs 2,000–2,500 crore. States pay more, the Centre walks........

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