Note ban idea was given to Modi by RSS ideologue, claims Rahul

Accusing RSS of trying to "capture" every institution in the country, Congress President Rahul Gandhi today said it was a "particular ideologue" of the Sangh Parivar outfit who gave the idea of the note ban to the Prime Minister.

"Do you know where the idea of note bandi (note ban) came from? Do you know who gave the idea of note bandi to thePrime Minister of India? It was not RBI, it was not ArunJaitley (Finance Minister), it was not an officer in the Finance Ministry," Gandhi said.

"It was a particular ideologue of the RSS.Nowyou imagine the RSS places an idea into the Prime Minister's mind and the Prime Minister launches that idea," he said.
 

Suggesting it was the design of RSS and BJP, who are convinced that it is only they who know everything and are taking such "disastrous" decisions, he said even a child would say it was not a good idea to "destroy" Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes that allowed corrupt to convert black money intowhite.

The Congress President was speaking during an interactionwith professionals and business community on the last day ofhis four day 'Janashirvad Yatra', in the northern Karnataka region here.

Gandhi also alleged that ministers in the NDA government were not operating independently, as RSS men were stationed in each ministry.

"In every single Ministry in India, national levelthere is an OSD (Officer on Special Duty)from RSS working with the Minister...In every Ministry in India, there is a man from RSS who workswith the Minister. The Minister is not operating on his own,"he said.

Stating that the Ministers are being guided by RSSon what to do, he said "the approach is of capture, the approach is here is an institution and let us capture it; asopposed to allowing an institution to serve the people ofIndia and allowing the people of India to capture the institution."

Noting that Congress believes in the idea that institutions should be controlled by people, Gandhi saidthe job of a political party is to run a political system and not capture or run the institutions and shape them according to their beliefs.

"This is the fundamental conflict we have with BJP.Their idea is wherever they go they plant people with theirideology into that organization," he said adding thatCongress' idea is to "democratize" institutions, while BJPbelieves in "bureaucratizing" them.

During his interaction, Gandhi also shared his visionof having many more women MPs and Chief Ministers in thecountry.

Stating that there are hardly any women in Parliament, Gandhi said "first thing I feel is important and Ican do it in the Congress party and I will do it in theCongress party, is to bring more and more ladies into thepolitical system, into the Vidhan Sabha, into the RajyaSabha.