The BJP vs Congress spat over the G RAM G law – a rural employment guarantee scheme meant to replace the 20-year-old MGNREGA – rumbled on Monday with the former laughing off Sonia Gandhi’s remarks as “flights of fancy” and “mischaracterisations… and outright falsehoods”.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), shortened to G RAM G, cleared Parliament last week despite vociferous protests from the Congress-led opposition that expressed concerns over a law that will “kill” the guarantee of employment. Chief among these were changed funding architecture that requires most states to foot 40 per cent of the bill.
On Saturday ex-Congress boss Sonia Gandhi released a video statement in which she accused the federal government of bulldozing the G RAM G bill through the House and said the “black law” passed to repeal it would be defied by the lakhs of Congress workers across the country.
She said the BJP had destroyed the MGNREGA scheme – enacted in 2005 by the Congress-led UPA government – and jeopardised the interests of crores of farmers and labourers pan-India.
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