Congress protest outside Kerala Lok Bhavan for restoration of MGNREGA ends, party vows to intensify stir

The two-day day-and-night protest organised by the Congress in front of Kerala Lok Bhavan demanding that the Union government restore the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in its original form ended in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday morning with party leaders vowing to step up the struggle until their demands are met.

The protest is part of the nationwide ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ campaign launched by the Congress against replacing the MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar-Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunny Joseph MLA, who inaugurated the concluding session of the protest, said MPs belonging to the Congress and the United Democratic Front (UDF) have persistently raised the issue inside and outside Parliament.

“The Congress took up this protest for the poor, toiling workers, especially the large number of women, who depend on the MGNREGA. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance introduced the scheme to improve the lives of the toiling classes. It also implemented a farm loan waiver of ₹80,000 crore. Our party has always stood for the rights and betterment of the lives of workers and farmers,” he said.

Mr. Joseph said the Congress-led UDF, which has been opposing “the anti-people policies” of the Union and State governments, will come to power in Kerala with over 100 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Mahila Congress national secretary (in-charge of Kerala) Esther Rani said the name change of the MGNREG scheme is “an insult to Mahatma Gandhi.” The BJP, which is focussing on privatisation of all national assets, does not want any welfare activity at the grassroot-level, she said.

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader N.K. Premachandran, MP, said the BJP was dismantling the MGNREGS “as part of a larger attack on Gandhian and Nehruvian legacy to build a theocratic state.”

“Earlier, MGNREGS was designed as a statutory right for the workers. However, in the new one, it has been turned into just another benefit scheme. In MGNREGS, the Union government bore 100% of the labour cost. Now, it contributes only 60%, while States are forced to contribute 40%. Even the naming of the scheme, using complicated phrasing, is part of the larger agenda of forcing Hindi on non-Hindi States,” he said.

KPCC working president A.P. Anilkumar, MLA, said the third phase of the protests will be held on January 30.