Bhubaneswar, Jan 25: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday charged that the RSS imprint was evident everywhere in the BJP-led NDA government and that the outfit wants to penetrate and control all institutions in the country.
"You currently have one institution called the RSS, mother of the BJP, which believes it is the only institution in the country. They want to penetrate into all other institutions and control them," he said.
The mindset has led to chaos everywhere in the country, including areas of judiciary and education, he maintained.
"We believe India should be run by its 1.2 billion people. One set of people, one ideology should not run the country," he said during an interaction with intellectuals in Bhubaneswar.
The Congress leader also said that his party has a view different from the ruling BJP when it comes to functioning of key institutions.
"Our party has a different view on how key institutions should be supporting the country. It respects decentralisation, independence of institutions and constitutional advances," he asserted.
Gandhi also said "monopolisation and capture of the education and healthcare system in the country needs to be challenged".
"A middle-class person has to pay crores of rupees to get good quality education. The same is the case in the healthcare system. That needs to be challenged,"the Congress chief added.
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Nashik (PTI): Police took custody of self-proclaimed godman-cum-astrologer Ashok Kharat in an eighth case related to sexual exploitation of women and produced him before a Nashik district court which sent him to jail till May 12 after rejecting the plea for his police remand on Thursday.
On April 29, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nashik police in north Maharashtra filed a request application in the court demanding Kharat's custody in the eighth case.
After the court granted them the necessary permission, the SIT took custody of Kharat, who was in jail in connection with the seventh case of sexual exploitation registered against him.
The 'godman', named in a dozen FIRs related to rape and financial fraud, was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani in the eighth case through video conferencing due to security reasons.
The eighth case related to Kharat allegedly sexually exploiting a woman who had approached him in search of solutions to her family problems, according to police.
During the hearing, the prosecution demanded police custody of the accused in the latest case.
However, the defence strongly opposed the demand and argued that the SIT was giving same reasons for police custody every time and there was no strong reason for accepting their plea.
The court accepted the argument put forth by the defence and remanded Kharat to judicial custody till May 12 in the eighth case.
The SIT will produce Kharat in the court on Friday again and seek his police custody in the ninth case. As the self-styled godman has been granted judicial custody in the eighth case, he will be sent to Nashik Road Central Jail and the SIT will take his custody from there.
Meanwhile, Kharat's judicial custody in the fourth case ended on Thursday. On April 18, the accused was remanded to judicial custody till April 30 in the fourth case of sexual exploitation of women.
In a related development, the SIT conducted a search at Kharat's office in the 'Canada Corner' area of Nashik city on Wednesday. A 'panchnama' (record of search and seizure proceedings) was conducted and the office was locked and sealed again.
Kharat, a well-heeled man with political connections, was arrested for the first time on March 18 after a woman alleged he had repeatedly raped her for three years.
He is accused of sexually exploiting several women by claiming to have divine powers and knowledge of black magic, and also committing large-scale financial fraud.
The SIT is conducting a probe into 12 cases of sexual exploitation and financial fraud registered against the astrologer in Nashik and Ahilyanagar districts.
