Even as the Congress sharpened its attack on the Centre over the proposed repeal and renaming of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), senior party leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday described the controversy surrounding the move as “unfortunate”, triggering unease within his own party.
In a post on X, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said the debate had been framed in a misleading manner, arguing that the ideas being invoked by the government were not antithetical to Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy. Tharoor was responding to the Centre’s plan to repeal MGNREGA and replace it with a new law titled the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB–G RAM G) Bill, 2025.
“The controversy over renaming MGNREGA in the Govt’s proposed new G-RAM-G Bill is unfortunate,” Tharoor wrote. “The concept of Gram Swaraj and the ideal of Ram Rajya were never competing forces; they were the twin pillars of Gandhiji’s consciousness.”
He added that projecting the change as a rejection of Gandhi’s legacy ignored this “profound symbiosis” and cautioned against “creating a division where none existed”. Tharoor noted that the Mahatma’s final breath invoking “Ram” symbolised this harmony.
However, as criticism mounted online, a user sought clarity from Tharoor on whether his objection was to the renaming itself or to the controversy it had sparked. In response, the Congress MP clarified that he was opposed to removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the flagship rural employment scheme.
“It’s pretty clear that I am objecting to replacing the Mahatma’s name. Read my tweet,” Tharoor replied, underlining that the third sentence of his post explicitly made that point.
Reports say that within the Congress Tharoor’s remarks drew a sharp reaction from party sources, who said he should make his position clearer at a time when the Opposition was united in criticising the government’s move. The party has accused the Centre of undermining a landmark welfare programme and erasing the legacy of a law closely associated with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
MGNREGA, enacted in 2005, was one of the UPA’s flagship initiatives. Sonia Gandhi, then UPA chairperson, had made an employment guarantee a core promise of the alliance’s 2004 election manifesto and played a key role in pushing the legislation through as chair of the National Advisory Council, despite resistance at various stages.
The VB–G RAM G Bill, 2025, which is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha, seeks to repeal the MGNREGA Act and establish a new statutory framework for rural employment aligned with the government’s Viksit Bharat @2047 vision. According to the draft bill, the proposed scheme promises 125 days of unskilled manual work per rural household annually, but also envisages changes in funding patterns, including a higher cost-sharing burden on states, and the creation of new central and state-level councils to oversee implementation.
Tharoor’s intervention has also come amid renewed scrutiny of his relationship with the Congress leadership. Last week, he skipped a meeting of Congress Lok Sabha MPs chaired by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, citing prior commitments, according to party sources quoted by ANI.
His absence followed a series of missed party meetings in recent weeks, including a Congress Working Committee-related meeting on November 30 ahead of the winter session of Parliament, which he attributed to travel from Kerala, and another meeting on the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, for which he cited health reasons.
These absences have drawn attention as Tharoor has, during the same period, attended several high-profile events where senior Opposition leaders were not present, including a lecture by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a state banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu for visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.