Centre has put nation in reverse gear: Laxmi Hebbalkar

Bengaluru: Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar on Monday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led Union government, alleging that it has “put the nation in reverse gear” and lacks both the ability and intent to lead the country towards progress.

In a media statement, Hebbalkar said the BJP was undoing decades of development achieved by the Congress since Independence and pushing the nation backwards. “Instead of strengthening the decentralised system introduced to empower gram panchayats, the Centre is attempting to recentralise governance,” she alleged.

Accusing the BJP of weakening the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Minister said the government was trying to play on people’s emotions by merely adding the name of Ram to the scheme. “They believe they can emotionally manipulate people in the name of religion and, in the process, promote superstition. While we strive to take people away from superstition and towards development, they are pushing the country backwards purely for electoral gains,” she said.

Hebbalkar said that if there were shortcomings in MGNREGA, the Centre could have corrected them and strengthened the scheme further. “Instead, they are trying to finish off a people-centric and popular programme. It is like killing the patient instead of curing the disease,” she remarked.

She questioned why the Centre, which has been in power for the last 12 years, failed to bring any reforms if corruption existed in the scheme. “If there were irregularities, did they not have enough time to fix them? Why this sudden ‘realisation’ now to dismantle the entire system? Does that mean they were complicit all these years?” she asked.

Highlighting the scale of the scheme, Hebbalkar said over 12 crore poor and working-class people, including more than six crore women workers and over three crore Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries, have depended on MGNREGA for their livelihood for the past 20 years. “The BJP’s mindset is that the poor should remain poor, workers should remain bonded labourers, and women should not be empowered or brought into the social mainstream,” she alleged.

Calling attempts to weaken MGNREGA a major shock, Hebbalkar recalled that the scheme was introduced 20 years ago as a constitutional right under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure.

She said the Congress would launch a ‘Raj Bhavan Chalo’ protest on Tuesday to demand the restoration of MGNREGA. As per directions from KPCC President and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, padayatras will be held in every taluk and protests organised at the panchayat level.

“The agitation will continue under the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar until MGNREGA is fully restored,” Hebbalkar asserted.