The Karnataka government’s demand for transparency from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has triggered a fresh war of words between Home Minister Priyank Kharge and BJP leader BL Santhosh.
Priyank Kharge on Sunday, August 16, questioned the legal status of the RSS after Santhosh said the organisation did not need formal registration to establish its existence. A day earlier, Santhosh, the BJP’s national general secretary (Organisation), made the remarks at an ‘Akhand Bharat Sankalp Day’ programme organised by the Hindu Jagarana Vedike in Bengaluru.
“At that time too, the RSS was not registered, and it is not registered even today. Registration does not determine its existence; it is an organisation working through the trust of millions of people,” Santhosh said.
He also claimed that the RSS had stood by Hindus during Partition. His remarks came amid Priyank’s repeated demands that the organisation establish its legal identity and disclose details about its finances.
Responding to Santhosh on X, Priyank said the issue was not whether the RSS existed, but under what legal framework it operated.
“Dearest Santosh Ji, Nobody is questioning whether the RSS exists. The question is: under what law does it exist and under what legal identity does it function?” Priyank said.
Priyank argued that the RSS could not invoke its history and large membership while avoiding questions about its legal and financial structure. He alleged that the organisation collected donations, owned or used proxy assets, ran associated institutions and organised activities across the country.
“An organisation cannot invoke its 100-year history, claim millions of members, collect dakshinas (donations), own or use proxy assets, run shadow institutions, organise nationwide activities, influence political and public affairs and then respond to questions of registration, finances and accountability by saying - our existence is self-evident,” he said.
The Minister asked the RSS to explain its legal status, ownership of its assets and the identity of those who legally constitute the organisation.
“If the RSS needs no registration to ‘establish its existence’, then tell the country what exactly is its legal status? Who legally constitutes the RSS? Who owns its assets?” Priyank asked.
He also questioned how the organisation’s bank accounts are operated and donations received and accounted for, asking, “Under what framework are donations received and accounted for? Where are its audited accounts and statutory disclosures?”
Priyank said the RSS, given its history and national reach, should be able to answer these questions. “‘We exist’ is not an answer to ‘Who are you accountable to’. History cannot be a substitute for legal transparency,” he said.
The latest confrontation comes amid over the RSS’s activities on government property in Karnataka. The state Cabinet has cleared the Karnataka Regulation of Use of Government Premises and Public Property Bill, 2026, which is expected to be introduced during the ongoing monsoon session.
The proposed law seeks to regulate the use of government land, buildings, playgrounds, parks, roads and other public assets by private individuals, organisations, associations and societies. The government has maintained that it is not aimed at any particular organisation, though the move has been widely viewed as having implications for RSS meetings and route marches on public property.
Priyank’s latest comments were also preceded by another clash with Santhosh, where the BJP leader had claimed that the RSS had protected the Kharge family from the communal violence during the integration of the erstwhile Hyderabad State with India.
Santhosh had claimed that RSS workers protected the Kharge family from Razakars when the family was forced to flee to what is now Kalaburagi. Priyank rejected the claim, saying the region’s people were protected by the Indian Army and national leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
“The RSS did not come to protect us. The people of our region were protected by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and the Indian Army. The Indian Army came and protected us,” Priyank said at a press conference in Kalaburagi on Saturday.
Invoking Operation Polo, the military operation launched in September 1948 that resulted in the integration of Hyderabad into India, Priyank said, “Who carried out ‘Operation Polo’? Was it the RSS? It was carried out by Patel, Nehru and the Army, not by the RSS.”
“Don’t live under the illusion that you helped everyone. RSS did not protect us,” he added.
Priyank also accused the RSS of contributing to communal tensions rather than protecting people during communal violence. “You are an organisation that creates communal riots, not an organisation that comes forward to protect people when communal riots take place,” he said.