Congress leaders question RSS funding, call for transparency
Congress Leaders accuse Hindu nationalist RSS of evading taxes and hiding donations by remaining outside India’s legal framework
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Ministers in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, governed by India’s main opposition Congress party, have questioned the funding and legal status of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — a far-right Hindu supremacist organization that serves as the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
They accused the RSS of operating without registration to conceal its finances and evade government oversight.
Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge and senior Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad said the RSS has functioned for nearly a century outside India’s legal frameworks for civil society groups, allowing it to collect vast sums of money and wield political power without accountability.
Kharge demanded that the RSS disclose its registration documents and sources of income, questioning how an unregistered entity could fund nationwide marches, uniforms, real-estate projects, and cultural campaigns.
“Where is the money coming from to build offices, buy uniforms, and conduct public drills?” Kharge asked during a press briefing in Bengaluru. “If the RSS is not registered, how does it collect and manage this money? If it is registered, show us the documents — that ends the debate.”
Earlier this month, Kharge wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urging the government to restrict RSS activities in public institutions and take disciplinary action against civil servants affiliated with the group.
He said the RSS’s deliberate choice to remain unregistered is meant to avoid taxes, compliance with the Companies Act and NGO laws, and disclosure of domestic and foreign donations.
Echoing Kharge’s remarks, Hariprasad alleged that the RSS maintains a “parallel financial empire” shielded from legal scrutiny. He said the group collects large, undocumented cash donations every year under the guise of Guru Dakshina — contributions made by followers during the Hindu festival of Vijayadashami — with no public accounting.
“They have built a complex worth over 700 crore rupees ($84 million). Has the Enforcement Directorate or Income Tax Department ever asked where this money came from?” he asked.
Founded in 1925 in Nagpur, the RSS has long advanced a sectarian vision of India rooted in Hindu supremacy — rejecting the country’s secular and pluralist foundations. Modeled on early 20th-century European ultranationalist movements, it operates through a vast web of affiliate bodies that penetrate politics, education, media, and the bureaucracy, functioning as a cultural militia enforcing ideological conformity.
The organization was banned multiple times, including after the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a former RSS member, yet it has since resurged as the driving force behind India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, shaping state policies and public discourse in line with its majoritarian agenda.
In response to the Congress leaders’ criticism, BJP politician and former Karnataka deputy chief minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan defended the RSS, claiming it operates constitutionally as a voluntary organization. “There is no law that mandates every group to register,” he said.
Analysts say the debate over RSS funding underscores India’s widening ideological rift — between a secular opposition seeking transparency and a powerful Hindu supremacist network whose influence now extends deep into the state.
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