MGNREGA was Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Sarvodaya, its death is our collective moral failure: Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in a recent op-ed in a leading English daily, launched a sharp attack on the Central government, accusing it of dismantling the rights-based legislative framework through its proposed changes to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and other key laws.

In the article titled ‘The Bulldozed Demolition of MGNREGA’, Sonia Gandhi argued that the weakening of the rural employment scheme represents a collective moral failure, with long-term financial and human consequences for crores of working people across the country.

She wrote that MGNREGA was not merely a welfare initiative but a rights-based programme that provided livelihood security and dignity to rural households. According to her, the erosion of the scheme is “collective moral failure.”

“MGNREGA realised the Mahatma’s vision of Sarvodaya (welfare of all) and enacted the constitutional right to work. Its death is our collective moral failure – one that will have financial and human consequences for crores of India’s working people for years to come. It is imperative, now more than ever, to unite and safeguard the rights that protect us all,” she wrote.

Sonia Gandhi further claimed that several fundamental rights are facing systematic erosion.

Highlighting concerns over education policy, she stated, “The Right to Education has been undermined by a National Education Policy 2020, which has legitimised the shutdown of about one lakh primary schools around the country.”

She also flagged changes to environmental and land laws, noting that “The Forest Rights Act, 2006, was markedly weakened by the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022, which removed the gram sabha from any role in permitting the diversion of forest land.”Sonia Gandhi added that the “Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has been significantly diluted,” while asserting that the National Green Tribunal has been “emasculated” over the years.

Referring to agriculture reforms, she said, “Through the three black farm laws, the government attempted to deny farmers the right to a minimum support price,” and warned that “The National Food Security Act, 2013, may very well be next on the chopping block.”