Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Chouhan on Monday hit out at the Congress for spreading “AI-generated misinformation” campaign against the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025.Speaking at a press conference, the minister accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi of abandoning their party’s “idea, ideal and ideology”.Shivraj said, “The Congress should desist from spreading canards about the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act. It is hell-bent on painting the Act in a negative light, but the party cannot strengthen its connect with the masses by spreading lies.”“The Opposition party’s use of artificially generated information and images to hoodwink people on the Act is a worrying trend. The Centre’s fact-check units have asked for detailed answers from the party on the matter,” he said.Chouhan claimed that the Congress only gave “rights on the paper”, while the current BJP dispensation ensured that the “rights of workers do not remain only on paper”.“The Congress said that MGNREGA has so far created 10 crore job days, but 8.5 crore of these job days were generated under the Narendra Modi regime. The Centre has spent Rs 1.11 crore for better utilisation of MGNREGA. With the VB — G RAM G Act, the BJP government plans to strengthen grassroots democracy where elected gram panchayats will decide the work projects rather than the state government dictating the terms,” he told the media.“The government has also been instrumental in removing the disentitlement clause of the Act, thus making the legislation more people-friendly,” he added.Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, during a rally in Kerala, said the Modi government does not want to pay minimum wages to labourers of the country, and that is why they were attacking MGNREGA.“The second reason they are attacking MGNREGA is because it is a programme that is run at the third-tier of government. They do not want to give financial power and decision-making power to the third tier of government. They want the country to be run from bureaucrats’ offices and from Delhi,” the Congress said in a post on X.“The Prime Minister himself ridiculed MGNREGA in the Lok Sabha. But when COVID happened, MGNREGA saved our people,” he added.Chouhan also tried to debunk the Congress narrative of the Act affecting the employment opportunities for Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribes (ST) and women. “The weaker sections of the society, the specially-abled, women and children are the priority segments of the BJP regime. The VB-G RAM G Act mandates 125 days of work rather than the 100 days promised under MGNREGA. Apart from this, unemployment allowance is also provided. It is in no way a barrier to job opportunities of woman or other communities,” he asserted.On many Opposition parties, besides the Congress, protesting against the Act and even passing resolutions in state Assemblies, the minister said, “MGNREGA was a demand-driven model where the state decided the projects, and the gram panchayats and other local bodies had no say. The VB-G RAM G Act aims to change that by giving more power in the hands of the stakeholders involved in grassroots democracy.”