Lucknow, New DelhiDecember 15, 2025 08:48 PM IST First published on: Dec 15, 2025 at 08:43 PM ISTWith the Cabinet approving a Bill to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB-G Ram G Bill, 2025, the Narendra Modi government’s push to rename laws, schemes, projects, and ministries continues.Some patterns in this are unmistakable. One, the renaming is generally in Hindi, which is part of the BJP’s larger cultural politics of giving the language a position that is more important than English. In recent times, this push for “decolonisation” — a major ideological project of the Sangh — found its expression in the recent statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has said more than once that India should move away from Thomas Babington Macaulay’s legacy 200 years after he sought to create “a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect”.AdvertisementYet another pattern is that the names of the Nehru-Gandhi family members have been removed from some schemes. Parallel to this, names of the likes of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who are part of the BJP-Jana Sangh’s political legacy, have been associated with some schemes. At the same time, some words associated with religious practices have also been used, such as naming the complex housing the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and other key executive bodies as “Seva Teerth”, with the word teerth meaning Hindu religious pilgrimage.The Congress has alleged that the Modi government is renaming MNREGA to claim credit and the move is “nothing but a cosmetic change to paper over the deliberate neglect being meted out to this scheme”. Targeting the government, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said it was “an expert at renaming schemes and laws”.He added, “They renamed the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and the rural LPG distribution program to Ujjwala … They are experts in packaging, branding, and naming. Surprisingly, while they hate Pandit Nehru, they also seem to hate Mahatma Gandhi. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has been in effect since 2005… and now you are renaming it to Pujya Bapu Employment Guarantee Scheme. What’s wrong with the name Mahatma Gandhi?”AdvertisementThe Congress on its website has put up a list of 32 schemes that, according to it, governments led by it had launched between 1975 and 2013, but were renamed by the NDA government.most readAlso Read | Centre to introduce Bill to replace MNREGA with new job guarantee schemeBefore Seva Teerth and the directive to rename the Raj Bhavan and Raj Niwas in various states and Union Territories as Lok Bhavan and Lok Niwas, the government, in September 2022, renamed the iconic Rajpath, stretching from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, Kartavya Path. PM Modi inaugurated the Kartavya Path on September 8, 2022, with the government saying at the time that the renaming symbolised a shift from an icon of power to an example of public ownership and empowerment.In September 2016, the Prime Minister of India got a new address: 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, after the New Delhi Municipal Corporation decided to rename Race Course Road, stating that it did not “match with the Indian ethos and value system”.Some schemes with new namesThe erstwhile rural housing scheme Indira Awaas Yojana, which Rajiv Gandhi started in 1985, was restructured as Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana–Gramin (PMAY-G) in April 2016.The UPA-I government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in December 2005 for seven years, after which it was extended for a couple of years till March 31, 2014. The government replaced it with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, or AMRUT, on June 25, 2015, with the focus on developing basic urban infrastructure.The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana for providing electricity to rural homes, launched in April 2005, was subsumed under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana that was launched in Patna on July 25, 2015.Ministry name changesUnion Ministry of Shipping was renamed Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in November 2020.The same year, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) became the Union Ministry of Education as recommended by the new National Education Policy, 2020. The ministry had started as the Ministry of Education after Independence, but was renamed MHRD on September 26, 1985, by the Rajiv Gandhi government.Names of lawsThe IPC, 1860, CrPC, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, were replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), respectively, from July 1, 2024. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said during the debate in Parliament that the sanhitas represent laws framed by Indians for Indians, viewing it as part of a decolonisation drive.The NDA government has named various Bills in Hindi: the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which seeks to set up an umbrella body with three councils to perform regulatory, standard-setting and accreditation functions for higher education.The landmark Women’s Reservation Act providing 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies is now the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, 2023.The government has also cleared the SHANTI (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India) Bill, 2025, to overhaul a couple of overarching laws governing the country’s atomic energy sector.