OPINION | Karnataka’s anti-RSS push and the court verdict Congress forgot

The detractors of the RSS need to recall these observations.

The recent attempts by the Congress government in Karnataka to target the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are not entirely new. In the past also Congress governments have targeted the RSS activities. In this context, it would be appropriate to look at the recent judicial intervention that might indicate how all this could end in a fiasco for Congress.

In the Purushottam Gupta v. Union of India case, the Madhya Pradesh High Court dealt with the issue of restrictions on central government employees from being members of or participating in the activities of the RSS. These restrictions were imposed through Office Memorandums (OMs) issued by the Congress governments at the Centre in 1966, 1970, and 1980.

In its verdict on 25 July, 2024, the MP High Court not only quashed these restrictions but made some significant observations. These observations are necessary to ensure that voluntary organisations working in the public and national interest are not unjustly restricted by executive instructions or OMs, and to ensure similar situations do not arise in the future.

The detractors of the RSS need to recall these observations. The Court questioned the basis on which the RSS was termed communal or anti-secular. It said: “The question... arises is, on what study or basis were the activities of the RSS organisation as a whole treated in the decades of the 1960s and 70s as communal or anti-secular? What was the empirical report, statistical survey, or material that led the then government of the day to arrive at an objective satisfaction that the involvement of central government employees with the RSS and a host of its activities (social, political, health, disaster management support, religious, and educational) would precipitate communal feelings and communal bias in the whole community? What was the basis for arriving at the satisfaction that the involvement of any employee in the aforementioned activities of RSS (even post-retirement, after demitting office) would be indulging in conduct that may be treated as 'anti-secular'?"

It further added, “Perhaps there was never any material, study, survey, or report at the relevant point in time on the basis of which the ruling dispensation arrived at a satisfaction that involvement and engagement of central government employees, even with the apolitical/non-political activities of RSS, must be banned for maintaining the communal fabric and secular character of the country.”

The Court cited several reasons for taking the RSS out of the list of organisations that central government employees were not allowed to join. A look at these reasons provides ample evidence about the credentials of the organisation.

“Firstly, it's a matter of general knowledge in the public domain that today, RSS is the only nationally established self-driven voluntary organisation outside the governmental bureaucratic hierarchy, with the highest membership drawn from all the districts and talukas of the country, participating actively in religious, social, educational, health, and many apolitical activities under its umbrella, which have no pertinence to political activities of RSS.

Secondly, the realm of activities undertaken by the host of subsidiary organisations under the larger umbrella of RSS is multiple, other than political activities, having no correlation with active politics. These apolitical activities may be undertaken by the volunteers purely out of community service, without political ambitions or goals constituting the comrade on the field. Thus, the majority of the activities of RSS today are not at all related to the political sphere, but span over many other areas of social engagement.”

The Court specifically mentioned the welfare activities of two major organisations inspired by the RSS and run by RSS volunteers: Rashtriya Seva Bharati (RSB) and Saraswati Shishu Mandirs (SSMs).

The Court categorically mentioned that through a chain of SSMs, lakhs of students from impoverished backgrounds receive primary and higher secondary education either free or at minimal affordable costs, and these schools have no political stripes. “There are people in our country who intend to be associated actively only with the educational venture of SSMs under the larger flag of RSS towards sharing their knowledge, wealth, and treasure with the poor children of society, bereft of any political ideologies or goals,” said the Court in its verdict.

Regarding the RSB, the Court observed: “RSB is working throughout the country through 45 representative organisations, that is Seva Bharti and 1200 other affiliated Trusts and NGOs. A banyan tree network established on a pan-India level across the country, with lakhs of volunteers drawn from all the States serving selflessly.”

It further noted: “Another example of the social and philanthropic facet of RSS is that its field volunteers actively engage in large-scale rehabilitation, resettlement, and disaster management support programs, especially the flood relief support being provided nowadays in many States. Even this social and philanthropic wing of RSS may not identify itself with its political face, but concerns only with the philanthropic face of the organisation.”

The concluding remarks of the Court summed up the RSS’ position as a nationalist organisation aptly when it said that the government orders “painting the whole universe of even the apolitical activities of RSS as communal, anti-secular, and against national interest is a decision having drastic consequences, not only for the organisation but also for everybody aspiring to associate with it with the noble interest of rendering community and public service.”