Congress President Rahul Gandhi, addressing a conference of academicians in New Delhi, accused the RSS of invading public institutions in the country and questioned Mohan Bhagwat by rhetorically asking "Who are you to organise the whole nation, Mr Mohan Bhagwat? Are you some kind of a God?" The Congress President further said that the nation will organise itself. Ex-French President Francois Hollande Calling PM Modi a Thief: Rahul Gandhi Fires Fresh Salvo on Rafale Deal Row.

Gandhi also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and narrated an incident. "When Modi ji came to power, an officer was chosen to head Special Protection Group (SPG). After sometime he told me he was leaving? He said, 'I've been given a list of people RSS wants to put in SPG, I refused.' Idea is that there shouldn't be an institution that doesn't have tentacles of RSS inside it(sic)," and said that RSS has been appointing its people in various institutions.

Gandhi, later in a press conference said that "We're absolutely convinced that the Prime Minister of India is corrupt. This question is now clearly settled in the mind of the Indian people that desh ka chowkidaar chor hai."

The Congress President also took a dig at Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was then the Defense Minister at the time of Rafale Deal finalisation under the NDA rule and said that when Parrikar was asked about the deal, he said he did not know anything. "The Goa CM was buying fish in the market in Goa then," said Gandhi.

On Friday, former French Prime Minister Francois Hollande said in an interview that the French government had to go ahead with Anil Ambani led Reliance Defence as the Indian Government did not give France an option in the Rafale jet dealings. The comment created a political storm in India, with Congress in general and Rahul Gandhi in particular taking the former French president's statement as a validation of its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection to the Rafale deal.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 22, 2018 04:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).