When Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked what “mentality” lay behind the proposed renaming of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to Pujya Bapu Grameen Rozgar Yojana
https://countercurrents.org/2025/12/renaming-mnrega-when-symbolism-replaces-responsibility/
“This is Mahatma Gandhi’s name,” she pointed out. “When the name is changed, the government’s resources are spent again on it… it’s a big process that also costs money.” At a time when every rupee counts, especially for the rural poor, the question is unavoidable: what public good is served by this exercise?
Changing the name of a flagship programme is not a mere linguistic adjustment. It requires reprinting official documents, updating digital platforms, revising signboards, altering stationery, modifying communication material, retraining bureaucratic systems, and issuing new guidelines across states and districts. All of this costs public money—money that could instead be used to clear pending MNREGA wages, expand workdays, or raise stagnant daily wage rates that still hover below minimum wage levels in many states. Do these dimensions get approval in the hastily, shoddily run parliament proceedings?
The irony is stark. While workers routinely wait weeks or months for their legally guaranteed wages, the state finds the time and resources to indulge in rebranding. This inversion of priorities is precisely what Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s question exposes.
15/12/2025