Congress president Rahul Gandhi laid blame on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for demonetization and said that it was the result of the RSS managing the government policy.
Gandhi was in Karnataka to attend the Janashirvada Yatra. In the event, he also interacted with professionals and businessmen. He asked them,
“How many of you know that in every single central ministry there is an OSD (officer on special duty) from the RSS working with the minister? The minister is not operating on his own. He is being guided by the RSS on what to do and the approach is to capture institutions.”
Attack on BJP-RSS
Gandhi blamed BJP of governing as per the ideology of RSS, its ideological guardian. He added,
“Take the Planning Commission, they changed it to Niti Aayog and planted their people. In Madhya Pradesh, thousands and thousands of teachers, basically they destroyed the education system of MP because they wanted to place their people.”
As per the Congress president, the approach that BJP has is quite different from what Congress had. If Rahul is to be believed, Congress had let the people capture institutions.
In Rahul’s words, “For us, institutions are sacred; we don’t believe that they belong to the Congress. Our tendency always is to democratize institutions.”
What the BJP said?
Union minister Sadananda Gowda straightaway refused the charges made by the Congress president. In addition to it, Gowda added that Gandhi’s statements better reflected the situation when the Congress-led UPA was in power.
He added, “Perhaps in that government, OSDs used to be a person close to the Gandhis, which is why he feels a similar situation prevails now.”
Rahul Gandhi on Centre’s policies
Later this year Karnataka will go to polls. Coming on the foreign policy, Gandhi blamed Centre yet again. He said that India has been isolated because of the focus on Pakistan. Unending focus elsewhere has resulted in failure to see China encircling for an attack.
“I’m sad to say that over the last four years it has been a really serious drop. But I will also say that even during the UPA we were nowhere near creating the number of jobs required. I would also include to a certain extent the Congress and the UPA in not being able to deliver 50,000 jobs,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi argued that the current central government is relying on imports rather than farmers. He attacked the centre for lack of job opportunities.
Gandhi also criticized the GST saying that the Congress would reform and simplify GST. “The Congress concept of the GST was one tax capped at 18%. The BJP and NDA did not listen to this and they went ahead and you see the result,” Gandhi concluded.