Priyank’s questions to RSS pertinent

Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge has rightly asked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to publicly release the information pertaining to its registration, income, sources of funding, details of expenditure, assets and whether these are being audited and if applicable taxes are being paid.  The question is valid for an organisation which claims itself to be the largest NGO in the world and claims that it has the largest number of volunteers working for it.

While one appreciates the useful work the RSS is rendering in the field of education, among the tribals, farmers, students, youth, women and a variety of professionals, it is rather bizarre that the organisation describes itself as an informal body and a private entity. That these questions were never raised publicly and no earlier government ever asked it to furnish its registration papers, is itself bizarre. And that the task was left to a home minister of Karnataka should be enough to convince that some organisations are considered above law and allowed to operate without compliance to basic laws of registration, audit, taxation, and scrutiny.

Equality before law forms the very basis of the Constitution to which all individuals as well as organisations must submit and Mr. Priyank Kharge can not be faulted for raising the poser. It is indeed the duty of the administration to satisfy itself with the legitimacy of each and every organisation that operates under its realm. That no one raised this question earlier should not be a basis for continuing impunity or immunity. The laws of the land should apply to all entities regardless of its origin, historicity and scale of work.

Mr. Kharge’s poser is more relevant and valid now when a process is on to check the bonafides of every individual and mapping his family’s origin and governments in states propose to bar the access to ones failing to prove their antecedents to all welfare schemes and privileges offered by the state. An organisation maintaining huge offices, disbursing salaries to thousands of workers and office bearers, publishing newspapers and books and running Eklavya schools may not have continued its work for decades without compliance. Releasing them in public would only enhance the faith of the general masses in its ideals and performance.

An organisation with such a large operational base like the RSS which never tires of claiming a disciplined cadre must submit itself to the basic laws of the land that allow it to conduct shakhas, take out route marches, run schools, seva kendras, organise shivirs and al low it to talk an preach about ideals of nationalism and patriotism. Now that the RSS is engaged in setting up branches overseas, it must be confronting this as the primary task. Demand to answer the same in its country of origin should not be seen as illegitimate.