By Krishna Jha
Power is faceless when it is on its own. It acts only when someone takes its reigns. But when it is made to act by those that are driven by their divisive designs, it gets authoritarian. The year is at its end, and there are attacks, but not against all; only the weaker and vulnerable sections and minority communities are targeted.
In 2005, for the first time in our country, the succour was given to the deprived ones. For the unemployed, without food and respite, for those living in the lower depths, solace came. Women, and the marginalized caste groups and agrarian masses living in acute deprivations were given work, and money in return. They did not know that it was all for merely two decades. In the last few days of 2025, the old system would be back. Social revolution lost the light that was alive only for few years as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was scrapped by the Narendra Modi government last week. Old power relations are back with full force. But it’s not surprising.
The MGNREGA was brought to provide guaranteed employment to rural workers. The economy’s neoliberalisation had led to a growing need for labour, though without the guarantee of assured jobs with minimum wages. The MGNREGA sought to address this critical issue by ensuring guarantee of work for hundred days every year. It was a boon for people for whom there was absolutely no employment. Though it was only hundred days in a year, it generated hope. The employment per year was for every rural household. There was a guarantee without uncertainty. The agrarian household grew stronger, not only financially, but also morally. Stability was restored in their lives. Women and those who belonged to marginalized caste groups gained a new confidence, that included bargaining power also with the cultivators on whose land they used to slog earlier. MGNREGA offered them more than wages, they had now a live share in the society. This brought a basic change in the society. The realization was slowly dawning upon the masses that they could demand justice. There was awareness about their own rights, including protest against injustice. It was a social revolution that MGNREGA inspired. The flame was nominal, but a reality. For a class divided society, it was difficult to digest. Hence was brought the most significant Act.
The recently notified Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act [VB -G RAM – G] has taken away the basic rights of rural poor, threatening to push them to abyss.
The new Act has also left the door open for the government to withhold critical ground-level data. According to a research organization, LibTech India, the Centre might use its discretionary power and choose not to share data on job cards, attendance, projects, funds availability, liability and delayed wage payment, among others.
Under the MGNREGA, which the VB-G RAM G Act seeks to replace, the rural development ministry discloses data on key aspects such as approved labour budget for states, work demand pattern, outlays and outcomes, social audit findings and unemployment allowance given to workers in case work is not provided within 15 days of raising the demand. The VB-G RAM G Act provides for weekly public disclosure systems, including digital and physical disclosure of key metrics, muster rolls, payments, sanctions, inspections and grievances, “as may be specified by the central government”.
The year has ended not just with an attack on the rural poor. The politics of hatred pursued by the government has led to attack on religious minorities. It became most glaring on the occasion of Christmas celebration this year. Members of extremist Hindutva groups went on rampage against Christians in different states of the country, obstructing their religious ceremony.
Most of the attacks were carried out in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and Haryana. As expected, the BJP did not issue any condemnation against these attacks. Nor did these incidents outrage the Central government. No statement was issued, and no significant action was taken against anyone.
Places where Christians were targeted on the occasion of Christmas included Delhi, Nalbari and Guwahati in Assam, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Vidisha, Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and Haridwar in Uttarakhand. Such incidents were also reported in Chattisgarh.
Ahead of Christmas, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India had issued a statement expressing apprehension of possible attacks on Christians. That apprehension has now proved to be true. Muslims have regularly been targeted since the formation of the Modi government in 2014. The widespread attacks on minority Christians across the country on the occasion of Christmas show that Hindutva extremists have grown in confidence.
The politics of hatred promoted by the Hindutva groups showed its ugliest face on December 26, when a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, Anjel Chakma, who had confronted a group of men hurling racial slurs at him and his younger brother, died in a Dehradun hospital after fighting for his life for over 14 days.
On December 9, Anjel and his brother Michael, both students in Dehradun for over a year, had been stopped and taunted by a group of men who referred to them in derogatory terms. When Anjel calmly stood his ground and told them that “We are not Chinese… We are Indians”, the group responded with brutal violence.
The incident reveals how the politics of otherisation is spreading. Lynchings of this kind first targeted minorities and Dalits. Now it is threatening to engulf anyone who belongs to non-Hindus from outside the Hindi belt. (IPA Service)
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