Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi before the CWC meeting in Delhi (Express Photo: Amit Mehra).
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said the nationwide Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls is a serious issue. Speaking at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, he further said the SIR exercise is a conspiracy to limit the democratic rights of voters, reported news agency PTI.
Senior leaders of the Congress on Saturday convened for an important meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s apex decision-making forum, to assess the prevailing political situation and chart its response to recent actions of the Union government.
At the centre of the discussions is the government’s move to scrap the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) and replace it with the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-G RAM G).
The extended CWC meeting is being attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and former party chief Rahul Gandhi. Chief ministers of Congress-ruled states — Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh — are also participating, along with presidents of various Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs). The chairman of Parliamentary Committee for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor is also at the meeting
The deliberations come in the run-up to next year’s Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, with party leaders expected to discuss electoral preparedness and overall political strategy.
The Congress is also firming up its stance against the government following the repeal of MGNREGA. The VB-G RAM G Bill, which replaces the earlier rural employment law, was cleared during the recently concluded winter session of Parliament and has since received the assent of President Droupadi Murmu.
Kharge said: “It is our collective responsibility to make concrete plans on MGNREGA and launch nationwide public campaigns.”
The Congress and other opposition parties have strongly criticised the new legislation, arguing that dropping Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme amounts to an insult to his legacy.
Under the new law, every rural household whose adult members are willing to undertake unskilled manual work is entitled to a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in a financial year. However, unlike MGNREGA, the scheme is no longer fully funded by the Centre, with costs now to be shared between the Centre and states in a 60:40 ratio.
Kharge also referred to the ongoing Bangladesh violence and the alleged atrocities against Hindus in the neighbouring country. He said: “We condemn attacks on Hindu minority in Bangladesh, the entire nation is concerned over them.”
Bangladesh is dealing with a spate of protests and violence following the assassination of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi. This was followed by the lynching of two Hindu men, Dipu Chandra Das and Amrit Mondal. While Das was beaten to death over blasphemy allegations, the reason for Mondal’s lynching is still unconfirmed.