Mr Modi usually shrugs off critics. This time, though, he may have overreached. As MGNREGA’s architect Jean Drèze argues, the new plan centralises power while offloading responsibility. The central government gains discretion over when and where the scheme applies, caps funding and shifts financial risk to Indian states. If the scheme is “switched off”, failure to provide work is no longer illegal. Prof Drèze is right to say that this is “like providing a work guarantee without any guarantee that the guarantee applies”. The old system had its flaws: inefficiency, underfunding, corruption. But the answer was reform not repeal. Poorer states, facing new liabilities, may simply ration access to avoid paying out.