Hyderabad: The Telangana State BJP on Tuesday strongly condemned the Congress party for staging so-called nationwide protests against the Centre’s new rural development initiative, describing them as politically motivated, deceptive, and steeped in hypocrisy.
State BJP Chief Spokesperson N. V. Subash said the Congress party has neither the moral authority nor the credibility to lecture the nation on rural welfare, having systematically weakened the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) during its own tenure at the Centre.
“The Congress’s objection to the renaming and restructuring of the scheme is entirely ill-founded. The BJP-led NDA government remains far more committed to Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of rural empowerment and Ram Rajya—a vision rooted in self-reliant villages—than the Congress ever was,” Subash said.
He pointed out that the newly proposed VB-GRAM-G scheme not only strengthens rural infrastructure but also enhances employment security by increasing guaranteed workdays from 100 to 125 days, thereby directly improving incomes and living standards of the rural poor.
“Congress leaders conveniently forget their own record. While they loudly claim ownership of MGNREGA, the truth is that budgetary allocations were repeatedly curtailed during the UPA regime, particularly after 2010, severely diluting the scheme’s impact,” Subash said.
He recalled that when MGNREGA was introduced in 2007 as a centrally sponsored scheme, it carried an initial outlay of approximately ₹1.57 lakh crore. “However, after the BJP came to power in 2014, allocations were substantially increased over successive years, leading to more effective implementation and a tangible reduction in BPL households across the country,” he added.
Subash further noted that under then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the Congress-led UPA increasingly pushed states to shoulder a greater share of the financial burden of MGNREGA. “This deviation from the spirit of a centrally funded welfare programme placed enormous fiscal stress on states, resulted in delayed wage payments, reduced workdays, and eroded trust among rural beneficiaries,” he said.
Citing Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Subash said the Opposition’s apprehensions were entirely misplaced. “The Union Minister has clearly stated that under the new VB-GRAM-G scheme, the Centre will bear a significantly higher share of the total estimated outlay of around ₹1.51 lakh crore, contributing approximately ₹96,000 crore from 2026–27, compared to the existing ₹86,000 crore. These estimates are based on full national demand for 125 days of work starting next financial year,” he explained.
The BJP chief spokesperson also referred to the Union Minister’s remarks in Parliament, stating that if changing a scheme’s name amounts to insulting Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy, then the Congress itself insulted Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy by renaming the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana as MGNREGA.
Subash said it was deeply ironic that the Congress, which hollowed out the scheme through funding cuts and forced cost-sharing, was now accusing the NDA of being anti-poor. “Unlike the Congress, the Modi government has ensured timely wage payments, transparency through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), elimination of ghost beneficiaries, and judicious use of funds—ensuring that money actually reaches the rural worker,” he said.
He also reminded the public of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s own admission that barely 15 paise of every rupee spent on welfare reached the intended beneficiary during Congress rule, with the rest lost to corruption and middlemen.
Taking sharp aim at the Congress leadership, Subash said the present generation is confused not about Mahatma Gandhi, but about the ‘fake Gandhis’ who have appropriated his name while betraying his ideals. “From Indira to Rajiv to Sonia and Rahul, these fake Gandhis have distorted Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy while promoting division, entitlement politics, and dynastic arrogance,” he said.
He accused Rahul Gandhi of repeatedly undermining India’s unity on foreign soil by questioning the nation’s institutions and identity. “While Mahatma Gandhi devoted his life to uniting India, today’s fake Gandhis are determined to fragment it for political gain,” Subash charged.
“The Congress should introspect instead of protesting. The BJP’s commitment to rural India is reflected not in slogans or names, but in outcomes, accountability, and genuine empowerment,” he concluded.
