Congress president Rahul Gandhi today accused the Narendra Modi government of "disrespecting" and "demolishing" various institutions by having RSS men "sitting in every ministry and giving orders."
On the fifth lap of his tour of election-bound Karnataka, Gandhi said if voted to power, the Congress would free these institutions from the RSS control.
"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 of the country has been demolished by having this structure," he said.
"Who is Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksey? These are the people who arise when you don't respect the financial institutions like the Reserve Bank of India."
"We are also seeing Piyush Goyal (with scam tumbling out)," he said at an interaction with traders here.
Fugitive diamond merchant Modi and his uncle Choksey are at the centre of the Punjab National Bank fraud.
Asked how the Congress would solve the unemployment problem, Gandhi said it would do so by encouraging small and medium scale businesses in construction, agriculture and other sectors.
He also said China is successful in creating jobs because its government imparts skill training to its workforce.
"In Modiji's government, there is no talk on (imparting) skills," he said.
Gandhi said the banks should give loans also to small and medium scale entrepreneurs, but this benefit is being usurped by 15 big names in Indian business.
"Anil Ambani has Rs 45,000 crore of loan and to help him, the Rafale (fighter jet) contract was given to him," he said.
In a letter to Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, Ambani, however, had refuted the allegation,saying Dassault's decision to choose Reliance as its Joint Venture partner was an independent agreement between the two corporate private sector entities and the two governments had nothing to do with it.
Addressing a rally at Magadi, near Bengaluru, Gandhi said the coming assembly election in Karnataka was a fightbetween two ideologies.
"On one side (12th century social reformer) Basavanna's idea of taking along every one together and brotherhood... the ideology that Congress propagates."
"On the other hand, there is RSS and BJP that spreads anger, hatred and pit one person against the other," he said.
Reminding the crowd that the film "Sholay" in the 1970s was shot at nearby Ramanagara, he said GST that was brought by the Central government resembles the film's villain Gabbar Singh and termed GST as "Gabbar Singh Tax."
Hitting out at JDS of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Gandhi said the S in JDS that stood for secular, has today become 'Sangha Parivar.'
"JDS has become Janata Dal Sangha Parivar. JDS is BJP's B team.. they are helping BJP. JDS has to make it clear whether they are supporting BJP or not," he said.
Earlier, Gandhi visited the Lingayat seminary Siddhaganga Mutt at Tumakuru and sought the blessings of Sri Shivakumara Swami, the highly revered seer of the community.
Gandhi visited the Mutt and met the 111-year old seer along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and KPCC President Parameshwara.
Gandhi's visit comes against the backdrop of the Siddaramaiah government's move to recommend to the Centre grant of religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, who are politically powerful.
The state government's action was seen as an attempt to divide the votes of Lingayats,who constitute about 17 per cent of the state population and form a strong vote base of BJP.
BJP is projecting Lingayat strongman, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, as its Chief Ministerial face.
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