‘Sceptical of Congress’s minimum income scheme’: NREGA architect
Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s promise of Nyay has found an unlikely sceptic -- Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Rashtriya Janata Dal veteran and former rural development minister who delivered the United Progressive Alliance’s flagship rural job scheme.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s promise of Nyay has found an unlikely sceptic— Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Rashtriya Janata Dal veteran and former rural development minister who delivered the United Progressive Alliance’s flagship rural job scheme.
Under Nyay, or Nyuntam Aay Yojana, Gandhi has promised Rs 72,000 per year to 20% of the poorest of poor families having an income of less than Rs 12,000 per month, if a Congress-led alliance comes to power after the ongoing general elections.
Singh, the architect of the UPA’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), said that “money without work” – which is what Nyay promises -- defies the basic principles of economics. The MGNREGA, in contrast, guarantees 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
“Money or other benefits should be given only in return for some work,” Singh said. “The basic principle of economics says you get paid for some job.”
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has an alliance with the Congress and three other parties in Bihar.
Known for speaking his mind, even to RJD boss Lalu Prasad, Singh said the rural job scheme was better than Nyay and, if he got another chance in power, he would press for certain amendments to existing MGNREGA provisions.
“Labourers working on private farm land should also be entitled to rural employment guarantee benefits. I proposed this when I was minister, but it got stuck with the Planning Commission,” he said. “Given another opportunity in power, I will ensure it sees the light of day.”
In Delhi’s corridors of power, Singh is known as the “right man in the wrong party” -- a phrase that was often used for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
During the UPA regime, Singh’s understanding of rural issues had earned him many admirers, including then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. So much so, that she wanted him to continue as rural development minister despite the RJD not being a pre-poll ally in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The list of ministers’ portfolios sent to then President Pratibha Patil in 2009 did not include the rural development ministry, which was kept vacant while the Congress was negotiating Singh’s entry into UPA-II with Lalu Prasad. The problem: RJD had four MPs but only one could be a minister. And that had to be the party’s chief Lalu Prasad.
“I could not have left the party just to become member of parliament or a minister,” Singh said.
Singh is the RJD candidate from Vaishali this time, and is supported by the grand alliance of Opposition parties in Bihar. Yadav and Muslims, who number 400,000 in this constituency, form the main support base of the RJD. Singh is pitted against former BJP legislator Veena Devi, whose husband is a Janata Dal (United) legislator and a local strongman. Veena Devi is the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate.
Singh is locked in a tight battle with the LJP candidate for upper-caste votes, which will eventually decide whether the socialist veteran returns to parliament or not.
There are about 400,000 Rajput and Bhumihar— two major upper castes of Bihar — voters in Vaishali. Agriculture minister and senior BJP leader Radha Mohan Singh claimed the upper castes would remain with the BJP.“Upper-caste voters will not chose a candidate from the RJD,” he claimed. “There is a long history of rivalry between the upper castes and the RJD.”