NREGA faceoff: PM not in favour of minimum wages, Jairam disagrees

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rural Affairs Minister Jairam Ramesh stand divided on the issue of minimum wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

Letters accessed by CNN-IBN show that the PM wrote to Ramesh on 19 December 2011, saying that he favours challenging the Karnataka High Court judgement that said the wages cannot be less than the minimum wages notified by the states.

Ramesh wrote back to the PM a day later advising against the filing of the special leave petition (SLP). He argued that the “atmospherics” of filing an SLP could go against the government.

NREGA is a flagship programme of the UPA which they have always sold as an aam aadmi scheme.

Although it is not clear why Ramesh advised Manmohan Singh against filing an SLP, reports suggest that he could have done so because if the government files an SLP trying to assert its right not to pay minimum wages under its own flagship programme, it could send a negative message politically. And, with five states going to polls, Ramesh feared the “atmospherics” of filing an SLP could go against the government.

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