The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh —
the ideological engine of the Sangh Parivar,
the organisation that shaped Narendra Modi’s rise,
And a group that can be compared to a djinn or to Proteus from Greek mythology
Why?
Because in mythology, these are beings capable of shifting shape and exercising extraordinary powers.
The RSS has over the years constantly changed its definition. It’s sometimes a political organisation, sometimes cultural, and other times, just a body of individuals.
And this “non-registered, cultural organisation” has now allegedly shown up in one of the most unlikely places: official US lobbying disclosures.
According to a Prism investigation, the RSS appears as the entity on whose behalf a top Washington law firm, Squire Patton Boggs, was hired for lobbying.
And in just the first three quarters of 2025, that firm received $330,000 for this work.
That’s nearly three crore rupees, for paying lobby members of the US Senate and House of Representatives.
The RSS has denied it.
But if the papers are true, it raises staggering questions.
Why does the RSS need a foreign lobbying campaign?
Who is paying the money?
And what does this mean for India’s democracy, and for India-US relations?
Let me explain.
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Now, back to the story.
The RSS is India’s largest far-right Hindu nationalist organisation.
For a hundred years, it has been the ideological fountainhead of the Sangh Parivar, the parent body of groups involved in education, social service, and politics.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party today, was born from the RSS.
But in the US, the RSS is viewed very differently.
Experts, human rights groups, and many policymakers see it as an organisation linked to discrimination and violence against minorities — especially Muslims.
Its early leaders praised Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.
An RSS member assassinated Gandhi.
And its affiliates were at the centre of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, which triggered some of the deadliest communal riots in India’s history.
So the RSS has an image problem abroad.
But according to Prism, despite the image problem, RSS is trying to lobby in the US.
In case you’re wondering, lobbying is the act of trying to influence decisions made by government officials.
Think of it as professional persuasion.
It’s done by companies, non-profits, foreign governments, or special interest groups etc, who hire lobbyists, who are experts at talking to lawmakers — like members of the US Congress.
The lobbyists try to convince lawmakers to support laws or policies that benefit their client.
For eg, a solar power company might hire a lobbyist to convince Congress to pass a tax break for renewable energy.
Now In India, lobbying isn’t formally recognised.
It happens, of course, but largely off the books, behind closed doors, without any structured disclosure.
In the US, lobbying is legal, regulated, and completely normal, as long as everything is declared openly through official filings.
And it’s those filings, in Washington, that suddenly threw up the name of the RSS.
A disclosure by Squire Patton Boggs, one of the biggest lobbying firms in Washington, showed they registered on January 16, 2025 as a lobbyist for the RSS.
Not directly, but through another firm that’s called One+ Strategies.
In the first three quarters of 2025 alone, Squire Patton Boggs received 330,000 dollars for this work.
The stated lobbying issue is “US-India bilateral relations.”
And later, “introducing the RSS to US officials.”
But here’s the catch. The firm registered this under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the LDA, and not under FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
FARA is stricter. Here, the firm would need to disclose every meeting, email, call, and transaction connected to this work.
Under the LDA, almost none of that transparency is required.
Experts quoted in Prism’s report say this is a problem, because the RSS is a foreign entity.
Ben Freeman, a foreign influence expert, told Prism that registering under the LDA instead of FARA “keeps this influence campaign in the shadows.”
Now both the lobbying firms have not made a comment yet.
But the day after the story was published, the RSS did.
Its spokesperson, Sunil Ambekar, wrote on X that the “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh works in Bharat, and has not engaged any lobbying firm in the USA.”
That’s a categorical denial, one that was carried by many mainstream media.
Here is another element that may make the RSS uncomfortable.
This is a tweet by the RSS handle on June 5 about the guests present at an RSS event in Nagpur.
Lawyer Bob Shuster who by the way is a Founding Partner of One+Strategies. And Bradford Ellison, an associate at Squire Patton.
RSS mouthpiece organiser also carried an article on this.
So, why were they in Nagpur?
According to Prism’s reporting, lobbyists contacted historian Audrey Truschke, to gather information.
Truschke confirmed to The News Minute that she received an email from Bradford Ellison saying the team was “recently retained by the RSS to educate lawmakers.”
Indian mainstream media hasn’t bothered to check after these details came out.
And if we go by RSS denial, then will they take legal action against these two firms for pretending to represent them?
And that brings us back to the central question that many are asking.
Is everything opaque because of the RSS’s legal status?
The RSS has avoided being legally registered in India since its founding in 1925.
It is not a society, not a trust, not an NGO, not a company.
Recently RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the RSS is a body on individuals
A Body of Individuals (BOI), whether incorporated or not, is treated as a person under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Historically, the RSS has shifted its identity depending on what suited it at that moment.
In his expansive book on the RSS, AG Noorani notes that before the Bombay High Court, the RSS had claimed it was “a charitable institution” under tax law.
Before the Charity Commissioner, it said it wasn’t a charitable trust at all, but a political institution.
Publicly, it called itself “cultural.”
In tax cases, it said its work was “educational.”
And now, it says it's simply “a body of individuals.”
In the 1970s, when the Income Tax Department issued notices, the RSS argued that it wasn’t earning any profit because all its money came from guru dakshina — envelopes of donations to the “guru,” collected once a year.
That allowed it to invoke the “principle of mutuality,” which basically says that you can’t make a profit from yourself. So guru dakshina was exempt from tax.
But if the RSS is only a body of individuals and its only income is undocumented envelopes of guru dakshina, then how did this organisation hire a major US lobbying firm?
How did it transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars abroad?
Former bureaucrat EAS Sarma has written an open letter asking the Union government’s Revenue Secretary to investigate exactly this.
If guru dakshina money is being used for foreign lobbying — and if the RSS itself denies involvement — then either a foreign entity is impersonating the RSS, or the RSS is operating abroad without disclosures.
Both possibilities demand answers.
Now the Sangh Parivar, of course, is massive. It has several allies and affiliated organisations outside India.
US-based charities have historically funnelled foreign funds to Sangh-linked institutions.
One report in 2014 said that over 3 million dollars flowed into Sangh bodies through a US charity called IDRF.
As you can see, the financial questions become unavoidable.
Now another question that arises is — what exactly are the lobbyists doing?
When government officials lobby, that is diplomacy. When a political party lobbies, that is political influence.
But when an unregistered ideological organisation — one deeply tied to the ruling party — engages lobbyists abroad, the lines begin to blur.
US lawmakers are now being introduced not just to the Government of India, but directly to its ideological backbone.
This affects how the US understands Indian politics, how minority rights concerns are framed, and how pressure around democratic backsliding is negotiated.
If the RSS can influence that conversation, the implications go beyond image management.
The story is still unfolding, but the questions are already clear.
And we will keep track of it here at TheNewsMinute.
For suggestions and feedbacks, write to lme@thenewsminute.com
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Script: Lakshmi Priya
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