Note ban was RSS’ idea: Rahul

Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Feb. 13: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the RSS of trying to “capture” every institution and charged that NDA ministers were not operating independently as the Sangh Parivar outfit’s men were planted in each ministry.

He also said the idea of demonetisation was given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a “particular ideologue” of the RSS.

“In every single ministry in India, at the national level there is an OSD from RSS working with the minister… The minister is not operating on his own,” he said.

Interacting with professionals and the business community at the end of his four-day campaign in poll-bound Karnataka, Mr Gandhi said, “The approach is of capture, the approach here is an institution and let us capture it; as opposed to allowing an institution to serve the people of India and allowing the people of India to capture the Institution.”

Mr Gandhi said the idea of note ban was also thrown up an RSS ideologue.

“Do you know where the idea of note bandi (note ban) came from? Do you know who gave the idea of note bandi to the Prime Minister of India… It was not RBI, it was not Arun Jaitley (finance minister), it was not an officer in the finance ministry,” Mr Gandhi said.

“It was a particular ideologue of the RSS. Now you imagine the RSS places an idea into the Prime Minister’s mind and the Prime Minister launches that idea,” said Mr Gandhi.