I have closely followed the progress of India’s – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) – since its inception on September 7, 2005. The scheme has been a major success in reducing rural poverty and providing income security to poor rural communities in India. It has also reduced the so-called ‘desperation migration’ from the rural areas to the already crowded and dysfunctional urban areas. And, the work produced massive community benefits – infrastructure, amenities, etc. The neoliberals in India have always hated the scheme. PM Narendra Modi has long railed against it. Now, finally, they have repealed the governing legislation and replaced it with a new Act that scraps the employment guarantee and puts a fiscal straitjacket on the remaining job creation opportunities. Neoliberals 1, the Indian poor 0.