Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jan 25: Amid an escalating political row over the Centre’s decision to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as Vikshit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) VB-GRAM-G, the Karnataka government is considering naming more than 6,000 grama panchayat offices across the state after Mahatma Gandhi.
Sources said chief minister Siddaramaiah is likely to announce the proposal in the upcoming state budget. The move follows a suggestion by former MP and KPCC vice-president V S Ugrappa, who urged the state government to respond firmly to what he described as an attempt to erase Gandhi’s legacy.
In a letter written to the chief minister on January 20, Ugrappa recalled that the UPA government led by former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh had introduced MGNREGA to address unemployment and rural distress, explicitly honouring Mahatma Gandhi’s contributions to the nation.
However, he alleged that after coming to power in 2014, the NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to provide adequate funding for the scheme and later removed Gandhi’s name by renaming it VB–GRAM G.
“This is not merely a change of name. It is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi and a violation of Article 51(A) of the Constitution,” Ugrappa said, adding, “No Indian citizen can tolerate this.”
Taking his criticism further, Ugrappa accused the BJP and the RSS of pursuing a “hidden agenda”, alleging that the move promoted the ideology of Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin.
“The Congress, which believes in the Constitution and Gandhian ideology, must give a fitting reply to the Modi government, the RSS and the sympathisers of Godse,” he said.
Ugrappa also underlined that decentralisation of power and village self-governance (Grama Swaraj) were core elements of Gandhi’s vision. Gram panchayats and other local self-government institutions were established based on these principles, he noted.
In this context, he proposed that more than 6,000 GPs and other local bodies in Karnataka be formally named ‘Rashtrapita Mahatma Gandhi Grama Panchayat Offices’.
The proposal is currently under consideration, with sources indicating that the state government may use the move as a symbolic assertion of its ideological position amid the ongoing Centre–state dispute.