Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge on Sunday, September 27, questioned apartment associations for inviting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to conduct outreach programmes, asking whether residential communities should be used for “ideological recruitment.” He insisted that communities should at least seek transparency from the organisation over its finances, structure, and accountability.
The Minister was responding to a programme hosted by the RSS on September 26 at Phoenix OBW and Kessaku. Titled ‘Introduction to the RSS’, the programme featured Harish Rao, Karnataka Dakshina Saha Sampark Pramukh, as the main speaker.
“Interesting to see apartment communities opening their doors to organisations whose legal and regulatory status itself raises questions, especially when the outreach is aimed at influencing young minds,” Kharge said in a social media post.
“Apartment associations should ask a simple question: are residential communities meant to be spaces for ideological recruitment and organised political-social indoctrination, particularly of young people? If an organisation wants access to residents and their children, transparency about its legal status, finances, structure and accountability should be the bare minimum,” he wrote.
In recent months, Kharge has been seeking details about the RSS’ legal status, registration, office-bearers, sources of funding, expenditure, assets, and tax compliance. He has argued that an organisation with a large public presence should be subject to standards of financial and legal accountability.
The RSS has maintained that it does not require formal registration to function and that it conducts its activities openly. “The legal status is also given to an unregistered body of individuals. We are categorised as a body of individuals. We are a recognised organisation,” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had earlier said.
Mohan Bhagwat had described Kharge’s demand over transparency and accountability as politically motivated and said the organisation had nothing to hide.
In August, Kharge reiterated his questions about the RSS’ legal identity, asking under what law it functions, who legally owns its assets, who operates its bank accounts, and how it accounts for donations.