Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi urged the central government to help the poor and not politicize the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. In her column in the Indian Express, she asked the government to use MNREGA to help Indians in time of their need.
Quoting Gandhi from his book Freedom’s Battle, Sonia Gandhi said that MNREGA is a shining example of radical and rational systematic change. She accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government of doing away with MNREGA by undermining its importance in its tenure of six years. However, she credited the activists, the courts, and the opposition for keeping the MNREGA alive. Alleging that the present government disguising Congress initiatives as its own, Gandhi wrote,
“The COVID-19 pandemic and the distress it had unleashed has brought the Modi government full circle. Face with unprecedented hardship and an economy already in a slowdown, the government was obliged to fall back on the UPA’s flagship rural relief program.”
‘This is Not BJP Vs Congress’
As soon as the nationwide lockdown was announced on the 24th of March, millions of migrants were left with no hope of food, shelter, and money. Millions of them were forced to be homeless and was made to walk a thousand miles to reach their home. Ever since the lockdown was announced, over 170 migrant workers have been killed in road and train accidents while several others have died due to exhaustion and starvation. Nearly 80 workers died of starvation on special trains between May 9 and May 27.
Gandhi acknowledged that the present crisis is the biggest humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale and it is now more than ever that the value of the MNREGA as thousands of people are returning to villages from cities and are hungry for jobs. She also reiterated the need to put money directly in the hands of the people during a crisis like this and urged the government to do so and also hoped that the government will be more flexible.
At the end of our piece, Gandhi finished by saying,
“My plea to the government is, this is a time of national crisis, not a time to play politics. This is not a BJP versus Congress issue.”
Source: Scroll.in
