Kharge says right to work being ‘wiped out’ under BJP rule

Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP-led Centre of weakening rural employment rights after replacing MGNREGA with VB-G RAM G. He claimed job days, beneficiaries, and income have fallen sharply, alleging the government is undermining the “right to work” for the poor

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday accused the Modi government of wiping out the rights of the poor as he slammed it for doing away with the MGNREGA and “finishing off the right to work”.

Kharge accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre of having pre-planned the elimination of the right to work for the poor. “The Modi g6overnment, before killing the MGNREGA, had already strangled the ‘Right to Work’, torturing crores of poor people,” he alleged in a post in Hindi on X.

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Kharge said according to a latest report, the number of families that received work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) dropped by 44 lakh in 2025-26 and that of labourers who got employment fell by 67 lakh.

The Congress chief also claimed that the number of families receiving full 100 days of employment dropped by 40.5 per cent and there was a 21.5-per cent decline in the number of person days. Every MGNREGA family has suffered an average income loss of Rs 1,221, he added. “VB GRAM G has not yet been implemented and labourers have been left to wander helplessly from door to door.

“On one hand, the BJP government is withholding crores of rupees owed to states, while on the other, it has imposed a 40-per cent financial burden on states under the new framework — states that are already grappling with a shortage of resources,” the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha said.

“The friend of select capitalists — the BJP government — is fully committed to wiping out the rights of the poor and this is what truly exposes its real policy and intent towards them,” Kharge alleged. The Centre enacted the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act in December 2025, replacing the MGNREGA.