Making the RSS Accountable

 

Making the RSS Accountable

  

It is surprising to know that the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)- the most influential and powerful organisation, whose spare of activities extends practically to every aspect of India society- religious, cultural, social, political and economic- has been left unregistered by the successive national governments, while it existed for 100 years.

 

The RSS was banned by the Indian government on three occasions since the independence.  Following the assassination of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Pate banned the RSS on February 4, 1948 citing to a ‘danger to public peace’ and accusing the organisation of fostering communal hatred and creating an environment conducive to violence. The ban was lifted on July 11, 1949, on the RSS assuring to shun politics and of good behaviour. On July 4,1975, Indira Gandhi banned the RSS, after proclamation of the national emergency. The ban was lifted on March 22,1977.  And following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the Narasimha Rao Government outlawed the RSS on December 10,1992. The ban was lifted on June 4, 1993. The Government of India, on all these three occasions, had failed to ensure that the RSS registered under the Indian law. Its registration should have been a condition for lifting the ban so that it would not engage in unlawful and anti-national activities in future.   

 

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi on August 15,2025, Narendra Modi claimed that the RSS is the largest NGO in the world. The fact is that the RSS is not registered under any law of the Indian government – be it as a society or a religious-cultural organisation or a trust or an NGO - though it is the richest and the largest world organisation, and remains unregulated and unaccounted. It continues to dodge the law, while it is allowed to carry nefarious unlawful activities. Strangely, the Modi government had lifted on Juy 9, 2024 the six-decades old ban prohibiting the government employees from participating in the RSS activities, thus openly encouraging them to identify with its divisive Hindutva ideology.

 

Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge wrote a letter on June 13,2026 to the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagat wanting to know why the RSS is not registered, and asked him to get it registered. He raised certain pertinent questions. Excerpts:

 

“An organisation that claims to have over 60,000 shakhas and crores of Swayamsevaks across India and abroad undoubtedly has a significant presence in public life and society. It is precisely because of this scale, influence and reach the RSS must be held in the highest standards of transparency, accountability and constitutional compliance. The RSS has a significant footprint in Karnataka, with 4,127 daily shakhas,1,389 weekly milans, and 60 monthly mandalis. The organisation conducted 2,194 samajotsavas drawing nearly 20 lakh participants…organised 562 route morchas across the state with 2,21,963 uniformed participants. Such an extensive organisational presence cannot be treated as a private and informal arrangement. It raises legitimate questions about legal status, accountability and financial transparency, public order, permission, sources of funding and compliance with the constitution and laws of India.

 

We therefore request the RSS to depute its authorised office bearers to explain the legal ground on which an organisation of such magnitude continues to function with anonymity without being formally registered as a legal entity or as a ‘body of individuals’ under the applicable laws. In a constitutional democracy, no organisation can remain above scrutiny.  The RSS cannot ask ordinary Indians to follow rules, while exempting itself from the same standards. If workers, small associations, religious institutions, NGOs, Trusts, Companies and citizens are expected to register, disclose, and pay taxes, then the RSS too must set an example by abiding by the rules of the land”.

 

The letter raises eight points, seeking clarification, inter alia, its legal status and organisational structure, sources of donations, contributions and income. Mohan Bhagwat says he is not required to answer the letter stating that the RSS is not required to register, as there are many organisations, including the ‘Hindu Dharm’, which have not been registered. So, the RSS is above the constitution and the law of the land, while he gets Z+ security from the State at the tax payers’ expense, and the organisation that he heads itself is illegal and evades tax.

 

The double standards of the RSS are exposed. In an article in The Wire, Kunal Purohit, an independent journalist, says that 80% of the RSS affiliates abroad are registered, and make their tax records public. The Sangh affiliates are terrified of violating laws abroad. While the RSS has refused to register in India, it has quietly got most of its global affiliates registered. There is no explanation why its standards for registration differ organisations across national boundaries. The RSS network spreads 38 countries outside India, and includes more than 2500 organisations in these countries.

 

In 2014, when Modi came to power, the RSS had around 44,000 shakhas, in over 29,000 locations, and by March 2026 the number of shakhas has crossed 88,000 in 55,000 locations across the country. It is a massive growth and exponential expansion. The RSS has been cited in several inquiry reports as having been involved in cases of communal riots over the years. Yet, it has grown in strength, especially after the BJP formed the first coalition government at the Centre in 1998.

 

Secrecy is central to the RSS’s functioning. Kunal Purohit argues that “while it is well known that the RSS has representatives attached to all ministries and to embassies abroad, the fact that it is unregistered helps to keep its real role unaccountable. It does not have a membership roster, or names of members. This is something that helped it wriggle out of the charge that Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse remained a member of the RSS. Registering would take the invisibility cloak away. The RSS had claimed that Godse had left the RSS". 

 

And according to Rohit Chopra, Professor of Communications at the Santa Clara University in California, "violence has been central to the Hindu nationalist project. If you are a registered organisation, it becomes easier for the State to target you. But when you aren’t registered, your members are not identifiable and you can’t be held responsible for their actions.”

 

So, the cat has come out of the bag. By not registering, the RSS wants to have immunity from any penal action for criminal activities of its members and the Sangh Parivar. It is high time the RSS is registered and made accountable. It is very dangerous to allow an unregulated communal organisation to have a free run to meddle with the destiny of the nation.