RSS under attack in Karnataka: Kharge questions apartment outreach, Hariprasad calls for RSS-BJP to be ‘Driven out’ of Bengaluru

The Congress leadership in Karnataka has stepped up its confrontation with the RSS, with Home Minister Priyank Kharge questioning an RSS outreach programme held inside two residential complexes. KPCC president B.K. Hariprasad separately urging party workers to politically oppose the RSS and BJP in Bengaluru.

 

 

 The two developments came within days of each other, bringing the Congress-RSS dispute over registration, transparency, ideology and public outreach back into focus in Karnataka.

 

 

The controversy began with an “Introduction to the RSS” session held on September 26 at Phoenix OBW and Kessaku in Bengaluru.

 

The programme was an introduction to the organisation's goals, activities and functions. Harish Rao, Karnataka Dakshina Saha Sampark Pramukh, was the speaker at the event.

 

The publicity for the event said participants would learn about the RSS's work and its contribution towards building a “stronger, united and self-reliant Bharat”.

 

The programme itself was followed by a political response from Priyank Kharge.

 

On September 27, the Karnataka Home Minister questioned why residential communities were opening their doors to the RSS, particularly when children and young residents could be among the audience.

 

Kharge asked whether apartment communities should become spaces for what he described as “ideological recruitment and organised political-social indoctrination” and argued that organisations seeking access to residents and their children should provide transparency regarding their legal status, finances, structure and accountability.

 

 

 

Kharge's latest remarks are part of his constant campaign over the legal and financial status of the RSS.

 

In June, he wrote to RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat seeking details about the organisation's legal status, registration, office-bearers, funding, expenditure and accountability. He subsequently repeated the questions in August, arguing that an organisation with the RSS's scale and influence should meet standards of transparency and financial accountability.

 

The issue, however, remains contested.

 

The RSS has maintained that it does not require formal registration to operate and has described itself as a legally recognised “body of individuals.” Bhagwat has also said the organisation functions openly and has nothing to hide.

 

 

While Hariprasad did not issue a specific public comment on the September 26 apartment programme, his remarks the following week added another layer to the political confrontation.

 

Addressing Congress workers in Bengaluru on September 28, Hariprasad urged them to oppose the RSS and BJP politically. During his remarks on the Vande Mataram controversy, he made a sarcastic reference to people wearing khaki shorts and carrying a lathi. Although the Swayamsevaks of the RSS do not wear Khakhi shorts.

 

He said, “Vande Mataram is ours, whatever anyone says. You go in the evening in khaki shorts with a lathi in your hand. BJP MLAs are bogus. They cannot even sing Vande Mataram while reading it. We in the Congress sing it well.”

Kannada media outlets reported his remarks as a call to “drive out” the RSS and BJP from Bengaluru.

 

The statement immediately drew criticism from BJP leaders.

 

Karnataka Legislative Council Opposition Leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy questioned the suggestion, saying that nobody could simply be driven out of Bengaluru.

 

 

 

Hariprasad's latest remarks also fit into his earlier public defence of Kharge's position on the RSS.

 

He has previously argued that questions about the RSS's registration and finances are legitimate within the constitutional framework. He has challenged the organisation to disclose its membership and funding if it describes itself as one of the world's largest organisations.

 

On another occasion, after an RSS worker initiated a defamation complaint against Kharge, Hariprasad argued that the organisation should first register itself, describing the situation as “double standards.”

 

Hariprasad has also repeatedly drawn a distinction between opposing the RSS as an organisation and opposing what he describes as positions inconsistent with the Constitution, democracy, secularism and the national flag.

 

 

Kharge's campaign has increasingly focused on where the RSS can conduct activities, who can participate, what financial and legal disclosures should apply to it, and whether its outreach to children amounts to ideological mobilisation.

 

The RSS reject that framing and maintain that its programmes are open activities of a socio-cultural organisation. Bhagwat has described the registration demands as politically motivated.

 

The BJP, meanwhile, has accused the Congress government and its leaders of targeting the RSS for political reasons.