The Narendra Modi government is soon going to replace the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, namely MGNREGA, by a new legislative measure titled "Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G-RAM G) Bill, 2025." The new legislation aims to abolish the MGNREGA, enacted by Parliament in 2005.

Conceived not as charity but as a legal right to work, MNREGA fundamentally altered the relationship between the rural poor and the State, placing dignity, livelihood security and social justice at the heart of development policy.

At a time when rural distress, seasonal unemployment and agrarian uncertainty were pushing millions into chronic poverty, MNREGA offered a dependable safety net. By guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment to every rural household willing to do unskilled manual work, the programme provided immediate income support to the poorest families. For many, it meant the difference between hunger and sustenance, migration and survival at home. In drought-prone and backward regions, MNREGA wages became the primary buffer against starvation and debt.

Beyond income, MNREGA empowered the most marginalised. Women found unprecedented participation and financial autonomy, with the scheme ensuring equal wages and local employment. Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and landless labourers gained bargaining power in rural labour markets, as assured work under MNREGA raised minimum wages and reduced exploitation by powerful employers.

Crucially, the programme combined employment with asset creation. Water conservation structures, rural roads, land development and irrigation works undertaken under MNREGA strengthened village infrastructure and improved agricultural productivity.

Dropping "Mahatma Gandhi" from the official references to MNREGA is not a clerical slip or an efficiency-driven abbreviation; it is a baptism of policy by ideology. In the Modi government's playbook, programmes are not merely implemented—they are reborn, cleansed of inconvenient histories, and reintroduced with new names that redirect credit and recast memory. MGNREGA, a rights-based law anchored in Parliament and sustained by rural India's poorest, joins a long line of schemes that have undergone this ritual of renaming.

What is presented as administrative tidying is, in reality, a politics of erasure and rebranding where governance is measured less by outcomes on the ground and more by whose name survives on the signboard. In this game of baptising schemes, the act of delivery is secondary to the welfare of citizens through governance.

Governments are elected to govern, not to rename. Yet, over the past decade, the Narendra Modi–led NDA government has made renaming public schemes and institutions a defining feature of its political project. From welfare programmes to public health centres, from rural electrification to urban development, the pattern is unmistakable: erase the past, rebrand the present and claim sole ownership of the future.

The exercise goes far beyond administrative housekeeping. It represents a deliberate political strategy that seeks to rewrite institutional memory, marginalise rival legacies and personalise governance around the office of the Prime Minister.

India's welfare architecture did not begin in 2014. Housing for the poor, rural electrification, food security, health insurance, pensions and urban renewal were all part of the policy landscape long before the NDA assumed power. What changed was not the idea of welfare, but the nameplates attached to it.

Consider rural housing. Indira Awaas Yojana, launched in 1985, provided homes to millions of rural poor. In 2016, it was subsumed under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana. While funding patterns and monitoring mechanisms were modified, the core objective remained the same. Yet in public discourse, the achievement is now portrayed as an entirely new initiative, detached from its four-decade history.

Rural electrification followed a similar route. The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, under which thousands of villages were connected, was rechristened as the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. Electrification became a political talking point, but the continuity of effort was quietly buried under a new ideological label.

Urban India witnessed perhaps the most visible erasure. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)—once the backbone of city infrastructure development—was dismantled and replaced by multiple missions, including AMRUT, the Smart Cities Mission, and Swachh Bharat Mission. While reform was needed, the symbolic message was unmistakable: Nehru's name had to go, irrespective of policy continuity.

The rebranding did not stop with schemes. The growing use of culturally loaded terminology in public welfare—such as renaming Health and Wellness Centres as "Ayushman Arogya Mandirs"—signals a deeper ideological shift. Welfare is no longer merely a constitutional obligation of the State; it is increasingly framed as a civilisational or cultural project aligned with a particular worldview.

What is striking is the extraordinary proliferation of the "Pradhan Mantri" prefix. Rarely in India's democratic history has governance been so tightly wrapped around an individual's persona. The implicit message is clear: the State does not deliver; the Prime Minister does.

Supporters argue that renaming accompanies reform—better targeting, direct benefit transfers, digitisation and accountability. In some cases, this is true. But reform does not require erasure. Administrative improvement does not mandate historical amnesia.

This obsession with renaming serves a political purpose: credit centralisation. Successes are attributed to the present leadership; failures are blamed on the past. By renaming schemes, the government resets public memory, allowing it to campaign on programmes that existed long before its tenure.

There are practical consequences as well. Frequent renaming confuses beneficiaries, complicates audits, disrupts data continuity and burdens state administrations with needless paperwork. More importantly, it cheapens governance by reducing it to symbolism.

In a Republic built on institutional continuity, governance should be judged by outcomes, not optics. Houses built matter more than whose name is on the plaque. Electricity supplied matters more than the ideology behind the scheme's title.

India deserves a politics of delivery, not a politics of renaming. When a government spends more energy changing names than changing realities, it reveals its priorities—and its insecurities. What has unfolded since 2014 is not merely a bureaucratic exercise in nomenclature but a carefully choreographed political theatre. Schemes conceived between 1985 and 2013 were dusted, rewrapped and relaunched, with the frenzy of renaming reaching its crescendo during 2014–18.

Familiar Nehru–Gandhi signposts were quietly scraped away, replaced by the omnipresent "Pradhan Mantri" prefix, while history itself was selectively rearranged through the invocation of preferred national icons. Yet beneath this cosmetic makeover, the architecture of most programmes remained strikingly intact. The policies walked on in new costumes, unchanged in purpose, revealing the renaming spree as an exercise in symbolic conquest—less about governance and more about rewriting memory, ownership, and political legacy.

Box Item

Central Government Schemes Renamed/Rebranded/Subsumed by the NDA Government (Post-2014)
1. Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)
Launched: 1985
Renamed: 2016
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin
2. Rajiv Awaas Yojana
Launched: 2011
Renamed: 2015–16
New Framework: Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Urban
3. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)
Launched: 2005
Renamed: AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission, HRIDAY
4. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY)
Launched: 2005
Renamed: 2014
New Name: Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana
5. Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF)
Launched: 2006
Discontinued: 2016
Replaced by: Aspirational Districts Programme (2018)
6. National Rural Livelihood Mission (Aajeevika)
Launched: 2011
Renamed: 2015
New Name: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – NRLM
7. National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM)
Launched: 2013
Renamed: 2015
New Name: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – NULM
8. National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)
Launched: 2005
Restructured: 2013 (UPA)
Rebranded Emphasis Continued: Post-2014
Current Framework: National Health Mission (NHM)
9. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)
Launched: 2008
Subsumed: 2018
New Name: Ayushman Bharat – PM Jan Arogya Yojana
10. National Digital Health Mission (NDHM)
Launched: 2020
Renamed: 2021
New Name: Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission
11. Health and Wellness Centres
Introduced: 2018
Renamed: 2023
New Name: Ayushman Arogya Mandirs
12. Mid-Day Meal Scheme
Launched: 1995
Renamed: 2021
New Name: PM POSHAN Scheme
13. National Nutrition Mission
Launched: 2017
Rebranded: 2021
New Name: POSHAN Abhiyaan
14. Total Sanitation Campaign
Launched: 1999
Rebranded: 2012 (Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan)
Renamed Again: 2014
New Name: Swachh Bharat Mission
15. National Rural Drinking Water Programme
Launched: 2009
Recast: 2019
New Name: Jal Jeevan Mission
16. National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN)
Launched: 2011
Renamed: 2015
New Name: BharatNet
17. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)
Launched: 2006
Subsumed: 2015
New Name: Digital India Programme
18. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
Launched: 2001
Merged: 2018
New Name: Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan
19. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
Launched: 2009
Merged: 2018
New Name: Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan
20. National Skill Development Mission 
Launched: 2009
Rebranded: 2015
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
21. National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS)
Launched: 1999
Replaced: 2016
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
22. Price Stabilisation Fund (Agriculture)
Launched: 2014
Recast: 2018
New Name: Operation Greens
23. Swavalamban Pension Scheme
Launched: 2010
Renamed: 2015
New Name: Atal Pension Yojana
24. Direct Benefit Transfer (Pilot Phase)
Launched: 2013
Expanded Branding: 2014 onwards
New Name: Mission-mode DBT under JAM
25. Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP)
Launched: 2008
Renamed: 2018
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram
26. Nehru Memorial Museum & Library
Established: 1964
Renamed: 2023
New Name: Prime Ministers' Museum & Library
27. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
Instituted: 1991–92
Renamed: 2021
New Name: Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna
28. National Manufacturing Policy 
Launched in 2011
Renamed: 2014
New Name: Make in India
29. Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account 
Launched in 2005
Renamed: 2014
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
30. Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG 
Launched in 2013
Renamed: 2014
New Name: PAHAL
31. Universal Immunisation Programme
Launched in 1985
Renamed: 2014
New Name: Mission Indradhanush
32. National Maritime Development Programme 
Launched in 2005
Renamed: 2015
New Name: Sagarmala
33. Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme
Launched in 1996
Renamed: 2015
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
34. Jan Aushadhi scheme 
Launched in 2008
Renamed: 2015
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana
35. Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme
Launched in 2010
Renamed: 2016
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
36. Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme
Launched in 2010
Renamed: 2016
New Name: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana