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Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who concluded his two-day tour of Karnataka on Saturday, took a dig at the state government before leaving for New Delhi.
At a meeting with the Congress leaders at the All India Congress Committee office in Bengaluru, he termed the Karnataka government as 'the most corrupt.'
"The Karnataka government has been institutionalising corruption as communal riots were institutionalised in Gujarat, as you all know," Rahul said while interacting with the members of the Congress party in Bengaluru after meeting with the students earlier during the day.
He also patted the back of his party workers who recently took out a padayatra from Bengaluru to Bellary to protest illegal mining in the state.
The 14-day padayatra concluded earlier this week with the Congress demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the issue.
"I am very happy in the manner in which this padayatra was carried out. The Congressmen reached out to the people of the state and explained the problems and this has always been the tradition of the party," he said.
"There is a greater responsibility on the Congress to expose such incidents since the government in Karnataka is looting public money. The Karnataka government led by the BJP is the most corrupt in the country," he went to add.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi while interacting with students in Bengaluru, asked them, "Do you support the stand of Raj Thackerey (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief) and his non-integration policy?"
The answer from the students was quick. They said they did not support what Raj Thackeray did, but also sought to know why was the Congress-led Maharashtra government not acting against him for his stand against the north Indian migrants in the state.
Rahul agreed that there was a problem on this issue and also said that such matters should have been handled properly.
In the interaction with the students that lasted nearly an hour, he was bombarded with questions from the students. The students wanted to know his opinion on reservations.
Rahul immediately asked the students how many were studying with a quota. The number of hands which went up were very few. He said things were changing and noted that he expected at least 70 per cent of the audience to raise their hands.
The students then asked was it necessary to have caste-based reservations, to which he said that one must go to the villages to understand the problem.
He said that the problem was immense in the villages. He then asked a girl whether she agreed there was discrimination against women.
The girl said no, to which Rahul said, "I cannot help it if you disagree, but the problem does exist in rural India."
Finally he asked the students what was the biggest problem that the country was facing.
In chorus the students replied that it was the quality of politicians.
Rahul asked one of the students if he would like to join politics. "There is no point in cribbing about the quality of the politicians and not do anything about it. Would you be interested in joining politics? Are you ready to work for no money and lots of sacrifice? If your answer is yes, then complete your education and contact me," Rahul said.
Image: Rahul Gandhi