Overview
- Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge wrote to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat this week asking the organisation to formally register and disclose its legal status, office-bearers, funding, expenditure, assets and tax compliance.
- BJP MP Ramesh Jigajinagi responded on June 17 by questioning why a Dalit should concern himself with the RSS and by saying those who took on the RSS 'have not survived', comments he tied to Kharge's fitness for the Home portfolio.
- Kharge issued a sharp rebuttal after Jigajinagi's remarks, saying the comments could be read as a warning to Dalits, invoking B. R. Ambedkar and stressing his constitutional right to seek accountability.
- The RSS and BJP have rejected the registration demand, with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat saying the organisation 'functions openly' and that formal registration is generally for bodies seeking government funding.
- The exchange has widened into a partisan confrontation over institutional transparency and caste politics, drawing criticism from Dalit groups and leaving the dispute at the level of public rhetoric with no reported legal steps against the RSS so far.