The BJP on Monday termed Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s claims about the VB-Ji-Ram Ji Act as “flights of political imagination” and alleged that her arguments against the law are based on “misrepresentation, selective memory and outright lies”.
The Voting India Guarantee for Employment and Livelihoods Mission (Rural) (VB-G Ram Ji) Bill, which replaces MNREGA, became an Act with the assent of President Draupadi Murmu on Sunday. Earlier, Parliament passed the bill during its winter session last week amid vigorous opposition from the opposition in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Criticizing the law, Sonia Gandhi said that the “demolition” of the historic Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) will bring devastating consequences for crores of people across rural India and called on everyone to unite to protect the rights that protect all.
In an editorial titled “MNREGA demolished by bulldozers” in ‘The Hindu’, the Congress Parliamentary Party president also said that the “death” of MNREGA is a collective failure.
Hitting back at this, BJP’s information technology department head Amit Malviya said on Twitter, “Sonia Gandhi’s recent article on MNREGA seems more like a flight of political imagination than a serious engagement with the law or data.”
“It is clear that he has not read the VB-G Ram Ji Act, as his arguments are based on misinterpretations, selective memory and outright lies,” he alleged.
In a pointed rebuttal, the BJP leader alleged that Gandhi has “romanticised” the genesis of MGNREGA in his article, claiming that it emerged from extensive consultations, but this was “far from the truth”.
He alleged, “MNREGA was conceived and operated by the National Advisory Council – an unelected executive body that actually functioned as a super-cabinet. So influential was its role that (then) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was often derided as ‘super cabinet secretary’ under Sonia Gandhi’s NAC.”
He alleged that this was “historical revisionism”, with Gandhi now presenting the process as participatory democracy.
Rejecting Gandhi’s claim that demand-driven employment was being abolished, thereby destroying the very guarantee of employment, Malviya asserted that the legal right to employment remains untouched under the VB Ji Ram Ji Act.
“What has changed is the budget structure – from an open, reactive model to a criteria-based system, which is the way almost all government schemes operate,” he said.
“Instead of diluting the guarantee, employment has increased from 100 days to 125 days. In FY 2024-25, the planned allocation is almost equal to the actual demand, proving that disciplined planning works,” he said.
The BJP leader said Gandhi’s argument that MNREGA remains the central pillar of rural livelihoods and the new law will suppress rural wage growth ignores how much rural India has changed.
He claimed that while MNREGA has played a role in mitigating the crisis, it has not kept pace with today’s rural realities.
“Data from NABARD and MPCE show that 80 per cent of rural households report higher consumption, 42.2 per cent report higher income and 58.3 per cent are now completely dependent on formal credit,” Malviya said.
He said, “Today MGNREGA serves as a backup safety net, not as a defining feature of rural livelihoods,” and described as “equally misleading” Gandhi’s claim that the poorest people would be left neglected if the old structure changed.
There has been a huge decline in rural poverty, which has come down from 25.7 percent to 4.86 percent. Loans to small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have increased three-fold since 2014, boosting self-employment and non-agricultural livelihoods.
He further said, “Public policy cannot be frozen in the circumstances of 2005, when India has clearly made progress.”
The BJP leader also termed as “false” the allegation that the central government is putting the financial burden on states by moving from the so-called 90:10 model to the 60:40 model under the VB-G-RAM G Act.
“In practice, MNREGA was never 90 per cent funded by the central government. States already bore 25 per cent of material costs, major administrative expenses and 100 per cent of unemployment allowance, often without any forecasting or transparency,” he said.
The BJP leader said the new model merely formalises and rationalises funding, making states “equal partners” rather than being “passive implementers of orders imposed from above”.
Noting that Gandhi had objected to the 60-day work ban, calling it an attack on year-round employment, Malviya said that in reality, the period is “composite, flexible and notified by the state – not an absolute ban”.
He said the Act protects agricultural operations during sowing and harvesting, prevents labor shortage, allows workers to increase seasonal agricultural wages, and also increases the overall employment guarantee under the VG-G Ram Ji Act to 125 days.
Malviya said Gandhi’s concern that panchayats and gram sabhas were becoming weak was “completely baseless”.
He said that under the VB-Ji Ram Ji Act, all work starts from the developed gram panchayat plans approved by the gram sabhas, and further added, “What is being ended is not decentralization but fragmentation and opaqueness.”
“The point is clear. This is not sabotage, but long overdue repair. The real choice is not between compassion and reform, but between paper promises that do not deliver the desired results and a modern framework that actually works,” he said.
Malviya accused Gandhi of ignoring the systemic failures that have plagued MNREGA over the years.
“In 2024-25 alone, Rs 193.67 crore was embezzled, of which only 5.32 per cent was recovered; bogus work exists only on paper; machines have replaced labour; and digital attendance systems have been bypassed in 23 states. These are not minor lapses but “deep structural flaws,” he said.
Despite these challenges, Malviya said the reforms undertaken under the Modi government have yielded “measurable benefits”.
He further said, “Between FY 2013-14 and FY 2025-26, women’s participation increased from 48 per cent to 56.74 per cent; the number of active workers linked to Aadhaar increased from 76 lakh to 12.11 crore; the number of workers on APBS (Aadhaar Payment Bridge System) increased from zero to 11.93 crore; the number of geo-tagged properties increased from zero to 6.44 crore; and e-payment increased from 37 percent to 99.99 percent.”