New Delhi: After the Narendra Modi-led Union government’s sudden move to list a Bill that seeks to rename the United Progressive Alliance-era (UPA-era) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), on Monday (December 15) was met with criticism from opposition members and activists, it was ultimately not introduced in the Lok Sabha. While The Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which will have the acronym VB–G RAM G Act, was listed in the supplementary list of business; it was later not introduced in the Lok Sabha. Opposition members have accused the government of erasing Mahatma Gandhi’s name, and dismantling the first of its kind law that guaranteed work for 100 days, based on demand to rural households.In a statement, Rajya Sabha leader of opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Bill was “not just about renaming the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act” but a “BJP-RSS [Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] conspiracy to end MGNREGA.”“Erasing Gandhi’s name on the centenary of the Sangh shows how hollow and hypocritical those are who, like Modi ji, offer flowers to Bapu on foreign soil. The government that recoils from the rights of the poor is the one that attacks MGNREGA,” he said.Also read: VB–G RAM G Bill Formalises MGNREGS’ DisintegrationCommunist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) MP in the Rajya Sabha John Brittas said that while renaming the Bill was only the trailer the damage was deeper. He said that while the proposed legislation seeks to increase the number of work days from 100 to 125, the government has removed the “soul of a rights-based guarantee law and replaced it with a conditional, centrally controlled scheme stacked against states and workers.”In a statement, the CPI(M) politburo said the government’s claim of increasing guaranteed employment from 100 to 125 days is “merely cosmetic”.“In reality, the Bill opens the door to the exclusion of large sections of rural households in the name of rationalisation of job cards. The provision allowing governments to suspend employment for up to 60 days during peak agricultural seasons will deny work to rural households when it is most needed and make them dependent on landlords. Mandating digital attendance at work place is bound to cause immense difficulties to workers, like loss of work, and denial of their rights,” it said.The CPI(M) said that the proposed legislation’s move to reduce the centre’s responsibility in wage payments from 100 per cent to a 60:40 sharing arrangement for major states shifts the responsibility of bearing the expenditure on unemployment allowance and delay compensation to the states. “This places an unsustainable financial burden on state governments while denying them any role in the decision making process. The introduction of ‘normative allocation’ – with state-wise expenditure ceilings imposed by the Centre and excess costs borne by states – will further curtail the programme’s reach and dilute the Centre’s accountability. The sinister change in the scheme’s name from MNREGA to G RAM G also reflects the BJP-RSS ideological bent.”With the proposed legislation stating that the the Union government shall determine the state-wise normative allocation for each financial year, based on objective parameters as may be prescribed by the Union government, the changes are likely to affect developed states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, especially if multi-dimensional poverty index is fixed as the ‘parameter’.Road Scholarz account on X pointed out that Article 5 (1) of the Bill mentions, “Save as otherwise provided, the State Government shall, in such rural area in the State as may be notified by the Central Government, provide to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, not less than one hundred and twenty-five days of guaranteed employment in a financial year in accordance with the Scheme made under this Act.”“In short, the Bill reduces a legal right to work to a token centrally-sponsored where the central govt is not accountable to anything and retains all powers. It must be opposed tooth and nail!” the commentary says.Also read: Modi Govt to Remove Mahatma From MGNREGS, Proposed Bill to Be Called ‘VB–G RAM G’Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien said the move to rename the law was an “insult to Gandhi”.His party said in a statement that if governance were truly the intent, the wages withheld from West Bengal would have been released.“If improvement was the goal, workers would not have been punished. For a regime that has consistently shown discomfort with the Gandhian idea of dignity through labour, the erasure is telling. The name change only proves one thing: the BJP knows it has wronged Bengal and now wants people to forget who denied work and wages,” the TMC statement said.Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and Lok Sabha MP Akhilesh Yadav said that the “BJP has a habit of renaming things”.“These so-called double-engine governments have no new work, so they rename others’ work in their own name. The government was saying investments have increased, then why not increase the work days to 200. If provisions are being changed, state governments should be given freedom in terms of budgets,” he told reporters outside parliament.The NREGA Sangharsh Samiti in a statement has demanded a withdrawal of the Bill and said that any attempt to “repeal or fundamentally alter MGNREGA without the consent and participation of workers and their organisations is unacceptable.”Any attempt to repeal or fundamentally alter MGNREGA without the consent and participation of workers and their organisations is unacceptable. NSM rejects the VB-G RAM G Bill, 2025 and demands its immediate withdrawal!#RejectGRAMGBill #SaveMGNREGA pic.twitter.com/7o2axGVVar— NREGA Sangharsh (@NREGA_Sangharsh) December 15, 2025