Punjab Finance Minister Cheema criticizes BJP-led Centre for MGNREGA changes, calls VB-G RAM G an assault on marginalized workers’ livelihoods.

The Centre is methodically undermining the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) initiative and depriving the poor of their right to a livelihood, according to Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who today launched a vicious attack on the BJP-led Union Government. Speaking in favor of a resolution against the latest modifications and rebranding of the MGNREGA program to “Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar And Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)” (VB-G RAM G), Cheema called the change a “assault on the stomachs of the marginalized.”

The Finance Minister read a moving letter from Charanjit Kaur, a female worker, during his speech that brought to light the anxieties of thousands of rural laborers. In his letter, Charanjit Kaur voiced his concern that centralized village lists and shifting regulations would deny youngsters access to education and the elderly access to healthcare.The Finance Minister emphasized that the Union Government is stealing the “Guarantee” of work, which was formerly the foundation of rural subsistence, by centralizing the program and switching to complicated mobile-based attendance.

Minister Harpal Singh Cheema attacked the BJP-led Union Government for acting contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, which was written by Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, pointing out that the BJP is undermining the document. “The Center’s policies are undermining the Preamble to the Constitution, which embodies the fundamental principles and values of the nation.” “We, the People of India, solemnly resolve to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic,” he said, quoting the Preamble.

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According to the Finance Minister, the Supreme Court of India has affirmed the sacrosanct essence of the Constitution by ruling time and time again that the Preamble cannot be altered or disrupted.”The Union Government is trying to turn the country’s workers into ‘bonded laborers’ and’slaves’ of a centralised system by centralising every scheme,” said Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema in a forceful statement. The essence of democracy is being directly attacked by this strategy, which is undermining local economies, dismantling cooperative federalism, and depriving states of their rights.

While the world respects Lord Rama, Cheema raised strong concerns to the scheme’s renaming after religious symbols, claiming that doing so is a political ploy to protect the government from criticism. He cautioned, “This creates a dangerous precedent where protesters seeking wages or rights can be labeled as being disrespectful to religious sentiments.”

Cheema emphasized that the AAP is working around the clock to elevate the Dalit community through tangible activities, drawing a comparison between the Center’s policies and the Punjab Government’s initiatives. “With six of the fifteen ministers in the Bhagwant Singh Mann government, the Dalit community has unprecedented representation for the first time in Punjab’s history. The state’s first Dalit Finance Minister was selected by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in another historic first; no Dalit leader had ever held the post under the previous Congress and Akali regimes, he continued.

The Minister went on to describe the concrete advantages that the community has received, pointing out that more than 15,000 Dalit youth have already been given government jobs by the AAP government. “The state has successfully waived the loans of nearly 5000 impoverished Dalit families, a move never seen under previous administrations, making financial empowerment a cornerstone of this agenda.” Most importantly, this commitment is reflected in the budget for 2025–2026, which allocates over ₹14,000 crore under the SC/ST Sub-Plan (SCSP). This ensures that 34% of the entire development budget is particularly allocated to the upliftment of marginalized and impoverished groups, which is the greatest allocation in Punjab’s history, he said.

Cheema also praised the success of the Education Revolution, noting that more than 267 students from government schools—many of whom were laborers’ children—passed JEE and were admitted, 847 students passed NEET and were admitted, and a large number of students from state government schools passed these competitive exams for the first time.

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Cheema urged the opposition to provide instances from their own governments that exemplify this. The Punjab government, led by CM Bhagwant Singh Mann, has also expanded this empowerment for the first time to the legal sector, where 58 children of impoverished people and sanitation workers have been appointed to high-level legal positions as a result of the Advocate General’s office implementing a 25% reservation for Dalit lawyers. The Minister went on to say that Punjab is the only Indian state that grants Dalit lawyers this kind of reservation.

In closing, Minister Cheema declared that the Punjab Government and the AAP would firmly back the workers and warned the Union Government of a large nationwide uprising. In order to illustrate the human cost of these policy changes, he asked the Speaker to convey the hundreds of letters that MGNREGA employees had sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, many of which had thumb impressions. “We will not allow the BJP to snatch the bread from the mouths of our workers to serve corporate interests,” said the minister.