The Karnataka government is likely to issue a government order prohibiting institutions owned or funded by the government from allowing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activities on their premises.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered that action be taken in this regard after a minister in his cabinet wrote to him. Minister for Rural Development, IT and BT, Priyank Kharge wrote to Siddaramaiah on October 4, urging that government institutions be prohibited from holding RSS activities which are against the Constitution.
The CMO released a copy of the letter to the media on Sunday, October 12, with instructions from Siddaramaiah directing that “appropriate action” be taken.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kharge said, “The philosophy of the RSS is poisonous. It does not do good for anybody. If the philosophy was so good, BJP leaders themselves would have ensured that their children adopted it. How many BJP leaders’ children go to RSS shakhas? How many wear ganaveshas (uniforms) and have taken the trishul deeksha, how many know the RSS anthem, or visit RSS shakhas regularly? They are all sitting abroad.”
Kharge also said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s son was the ICC chairman. “Have you ever seen him in an RSS uniform? It’s only poor people, SCs, STs, backward people that the RSS is trying to brainwash. “
He said that the RSS claimed that Hindus were under threat and so they needed to have more children. “But the RSS (leaders) themselves are bachelors. Why can’t they get married and send their children to become dharam rakshaks or gau rakshaks?”
He also questioned the need for the RSS to hold lathis during their route marches.
On Sunday, October 12, the RSS held route marches across India as part of its centenary celebrations. According to media reports, 100 such marches had been planned in Bengaluru.
The starting point of two of the main route marches in Bengaluru were public spaces. One was the playground of a girls’ school run by the BBMP in Shankarapuram, and the other was a BBMP playground in Subramanya Nagar in Rajajinagar.
In this letter to the CM, Kharge said that the RSS was spreading “ideas that go against India’s unity and the spirit of the Constitution.”
“Displays of aggression are being carried out holding lathis without obtaining police permission, which leave a harmful psychological impact on innocent children and young people,” he said in the letter.
Kharge said the right-wing organisation must be barred from conducting activities, including ‘shakhas’ inside any government school or public places like parks and public playgrounds, temples under the Muzrai department, Archaeology Department sites and other government premises.
(With inputs from IANS)