BJP spending more time 'renaming' Cong's schemes than coming up with its own: AICC spokesperson

Guwahati, Dec 21 (PTI) Congress national spokesperson Ragini Nayak on Sunday alleged that the BJP-led central government has been spending more time renaming schemes implemented during the grand old party's tenure than coming up with its own welfare programmes.

She also accused the ruling dispensation of projecting schemes implemented by the Congress governments as its own.

Addressing a press conference here, she said, "People who do not themselves work spend their time renaming work done by others." "If the person who claims to work 18 hours a day had actually worked sincerely even for 18 months in the last 11 years, there wouldn't have been any need to rename the schemes implemented by the Congress," the AICC national spokesperson added, criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the renaming of the MGNREGA scheme.

Nayak claimed that if one were to prepare a list of the Congress-implemented schemes whose names have been changed by the Modi government and then projected as its own, the exercise would take an entire day.

"The BJP renamed the 'Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan' of the Manmohan Singh government as 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'. The symbol of Swachh Bharat is Gandhiji's spectacles. The BJP could appropriate the spectacles, but it has never been able to adopt Gandhiji's vision.

"The BJP and the RSS are filled with hatred towards Gandhiji, Nehru and other great national leaders. That is why the BJP did not hesitate to remove Mahatma Gandhi's name from the MGNREGA scheme," she said.

She maintained that the name of the new scheme is such that one cannot even remember it.

The new scheme, 'Viksit Bharat-Guarantee Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission, Gramin', (VB-G RAM G), received the Presidential assent on Sunday.

Accusing the BJP of using Lord Ram's name to cover the government's failures, Nayak further said, "Now the PM will say that Congress cannot tolerate the name of Ram. Let us make it very clear that the Congress has no problem with the name of Ram. Our problem is with those who chant Ram's name while stabbing the people in the back." She also claimed that the Modi-led NDA government is also attempting to weaken MGNREGA itself.

"Under the UPA government, the right to guaranteed employment was given the status of a legal right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Now, under VB-G RAM G, the right has been removed and reduced to a mere promise," she said.

She further said that MGNREGA was 100 per cent funded by the central government, but under the new scheme, states will now have to bear 40 per cent of the expenditure.

She asserted that Congress will continue opposing the dilution of such Acts and schemes meant for the welfare of the lowest strata of society. PTI SSG SSG ACD