Rahul Gandhi: RSS men issue diktats to ministries

Davanagere: In a blistering attacking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday charged that RSS men are not just interfering but issuing diktats to every ministry, and that’s the reason why ministries and institutions across the country are falling apart.

During an interaction with the city’s traders, Mr Gandhi said, “I don’t know if you all know that in every single minister’s office, there is an RSS man sitting and giving orders. So what can you expect? Nothing but disrespecting the institutions. The banking system has been demolished by having this structure,” he said, and added, “Who are Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi? These are the people who rise when you don’t respect the financial institutions like the Reserve Bank of India. We are also seeing Piyush Goyal.”

Mr Gandhi had on Tuesday targeted Union minister Piyush Goyal for his alleged links with the promoter of a company in default of Rs 650 crore.

Mr Gandhi said former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had advised the government against demonetisations, and claimed that neither the chief economic advisor, the Union finance minister nor the Cabinet were aware of Mr Modi’s demonetisation plans.

“The entire Cabinet was locked up prior to demonetisation. They (Cabinet ministers) were not let out of the room,” he alleged.

The Congress president said if voted to power, the Congress would ensure free functioning of ministries and institutions.

While vowing to scrap GST in its present form and simplifying it if the Congress is voted to power in 2019, he also promised to withdraw all taxes on all goods used by the common man on a day to day basis. “GST is worse than the tax regimes of Sudan and Pakistan,” he said.

Asked how the Congress would solve the problem of unemployment, Mr Gandhi said it would do so by encouraging small and medium scale businesses in construction, agriculture and other sectors. He said China is successful in creating jobs because the government imparts skill training to its workforce. “In Modiji’s government, there is no talk on (imparting) skills,” he said.

He said banks should release loans to small and medium scale entrepreneurs on priority basis, but the benefit is usurped by 15 big-ticket players in the country. “Mr Anil Ambani has to replay a loan of Rs 45,000 crore, but the Rafale (fighter jet) contract was given to him,” Mr Gandhi alleged.

Mr Ambani had refuted the allegation saying that Dassault’s decision to choose Reliance as its joint venture partner was an independent agreement between the two corporate, private sector entities and that the two governments had nothing to do with it.

Alleging that RSS is running the Central government, he said that dalits, minorities and tribal are not feeling safe in its administration. He condemned the recent notification issued by information & broadcasting minister Smriti Irani over punitive measures such as cancellation of accreditation to control “fake news”.