Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Saturday questioned the Aam Aadmi Party government over its sudden decision to implement the central government’s Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission-Gramin (VB-G RAMG) scheme—which repeals and replaces the MGNREGA model—alleging an opportunistic deal and compromise with the BJP.
Warring said that the Punjab government had convened a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on December 30, 2025, where it passed a unanimous resolution rejecting the VB-G RAMG scheme. The assembly had initially opposed the transition because the new law shifts rural wage funding to a top-down normative allocation with a heavy 60:40 Centre-State cost-sharing ratio, imposing an unviable financial burden on debt-ridden Punjab.
He said that by notifying the scheme’s implementation, the state government had completely negated its own assembly resolution.
Terming the timing of the implementation both critical and surprising, the PCC chief questioned if the sudden move was linked to the ongoing legal and religious controversy surrounding chief minister Bhagwant Mann over an allegedly fabricated video and subsequent police arrest rows in Gurugram.
“Having been cornered both within and outside his party, is the chief minister trying to buy peace with the BJP?” Warring said, arguing there was no other logical reason to roll out a scheme the state legislature had formally rejected.
Warring also called on AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal to break his silence and clarify whether he approved of the decision, warning that failure to do so would confirm that his party had struck a tactical deal with the BJP.
