Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday charged the RSS was behind the policies and programmes of the NDA government, especially demonetisation.

“With an RSS functionary posted as an officer on special duty in every central ministry, the BJP’s parent organisation is guiding the NDA government in framing policies and programmes for the country,” Gandhi said at an interaction with entrepreneurs and businessmen in north Karnataka’s Kalaburgi town, about 630km from Bengaluru.

As an instance of the RSS role in the government’s functioning, he said an RSS ideologue was behind demonetisation and not the Reserve Bank of India or Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

“Instead of the RBI or Jaitley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suddenly declared the note ban (on November 8, 2016) on the advice of an RSS ideologue,” asserted Gandhi on the fourth day of his visit to the state’s northern region.

Gandhi, on his maiden visit to Karnataka after taking over the party in December, is since Saturday on a “Jan Ashirwad Yatra” for the people’s blessings ahead of the assembly poll in the state, due in late April or early May.

Accusing Modi of implementing every idea of the RSS, Gandhi said the organisation had been interfering in the administration of the country since the NDA came to power in May 2014.

“The setting up of the NITI Ayog after scrapping the Planning Commission is another instance of the RSS hand in running the NDA government,” he alleged.

Taking exception to the remarks of RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat on the Indian Army, Gandhi said by comparing the Hindu body’s cadres with the troops, Bhagwat had insulted the brave soldiers and offended their families.

In a speech at an RSS rally in Bihar’s Muzzafarpur on Sunday, Bhagwat remarked that the Army took six months to prepare for war while his outfit’s cadres could do in just three days.

The RSS, however, on Monday clarified that Bhagwat’s observation was misinterpreted by a section of the media and quoted him out of context.

Party’s senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who represents the Kalaburgi reserved constituency in the Lok Sabha, state unit President G. Parameshwar, in-charge of the party’s state affairs K.C. Venugopal and party leaders participated in the hour-long interaction at a local college here.

Gandhi wrapped the four-day visit to Ballari, Koppal, Raichur and Kalaburgi by visiting the Anubhava Mantapa temple at Basavakalyan in the neighbouring Bidar district before flying back to Delhi later in the evening.