Fact-check: Rahul Gandhi lies yet again, this time about MGNREGA

Congress President Rahul Gandhi

On the occasion of addressing a Congress rally in Odisha, Congress President Rahul Gandhi made a series of unfounded allegations to mount his attack on the Modi government. In one of the allegations levelled by Rahul Gandhi, he claimed that the Modi government is destroying NREGA. But contrary to what Rahul Gandhi would have us believe, Modi government has, in fact, strengthened the MGNREGA scheme.

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It appears that Rahul Gandhi is unaware of the Modi government’s decision of empowering NREGA by augmenting its budget by about Rs 6,000 crores. This is the highest ever allocation in a single year by any government since the inception of the NREGA scheme. The funds allocated to MGNREGA has progressively increased under the BJP government. In 2014-2015, around Rs 37000 crore was allocated for MGNREGA scheme which has increased to Rs 61000 crore in the current fiscal year.

The Union Rural Development Ministry released a statement saying, “The government has allocated an additional Rs 6,084 crore to MGNREGA. This brings the total allocation to the scheme to Rs 61,084 crore in 2018-19, making it the highest ever allocation.”

The Modi government also brought about structural reforms in the MGNREGA scheme and transformed it into a resource to provide sustainable livelihood to the poor. When Modi assumed power in 2014, 29.44 lakh works were completed in 2014-15 which has now increased to 61.9 lakh completed works under MGNREGA scheme. In 2014-2015, 26.85% of the beneficiaries received wages within 15 days, but in the current fiscal, almost 91.82% of the beneficiaries have received the wages within 15 days of the completion of their work.

This is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has disregarded the truth. In the Rafale Deal, Rahul Gandhi lied several times over, often concocting uncorroborated stories from unknown officials confiding in him about the Rafale scam, conjuring up different pricing figures of the Rafale fighter aircraft. Even after the Supreme Court declared that there has been no wrongdoing in the Rafale Deal, Rahul Gandhi and his allies are indulging in gobbledygook to confuse the citizens vis-a-vis the Rafale Deal.

In fact, the instances of Rahul Gandhi lying are so profound that it is not humanly possible to talk about them in a single article. Here’s a list of instances when Rahul Gandhi has lied to the country.

In continuing with his tradition of unrepentantly lying about the Modi government’s policies without bothering to ascertain the truth, Rahul Gandhi believes that his lies and spin-offs will not be exposed. He is confident that the way contrived scam about the Rafale Deal was lapped up by the media, similarly his lies about the Modi government’s other decisions will not be investigated upon by the pliant media amidst the cacophony created by his unfounded allegations. Far from destroying the MGNREGA scheme, the Modi government has empowered it by augmenting its budgetary allocation.

Jinit Jain: Writer. Learner. Cricket Enthusiast.