When politics sinks to the gutter, it usually wears the Congress badge. Karnataka’s Minister for IT and Rural Development, Priyank Kharge, son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, has just offered fresh proof. On October 13, 2025, the junior Kharge wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah demanding a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and a blanket prohibition on government employees participating in its events. Two days later, on October 16, the Karnataka Cabinet reportedly approved the drafting of new rules to curb RSS activities on government school and college premises. If that isn’t political opportunism at its worst, what is? Let’s call this what it is — a cynical stunt by a fading party clutching at straws. The Congress, once the political colossus that ruled India for over six decades, today governs just three states and plays junior partner in two others. Its ideological compass has collapsed, its leaders are divided, and its president was chosen largely to tick a caste box. Having failed in governance and credibility, the party now survives on anti-Hindu tokenism, hoping the bogey of “Sanatan extremism” will somehow keep it relevant. Priyank Kharge’s outburst exposes the rot perfectly. He appears blissfully unaware that banning any organisation is not a state subject but a Union prerogative under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Karnataka has no authority to ban the RSS — not that facts ever mattered to Congress leaders high on their own rhetoric. History, too, refuses to oblige Kharge’s ignorance. The RSS has faced the Congress’s wrath thrice — and triumphed each time. In February 1948, following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, the Nehru government banned the RSS. After nearly a year of inquiry, it found no evidence linking the organisation to the crime, and the ban was lifted in July 1949. In July 1975, during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, the RSS was again outlawed, and thousands of its workers were jailed for upholding democracy. The ban collapsed in 1977, when the Janata Party — many of whose leaders were former RSS men — swept to power. The third came in December 1992, after the Babri Masjid demolition. Yet again, after six months of investigation and political posturing, the ban was revoked in June 1993, with the government finding no proof of any violent conspiracy. Each ban strengthened, not weakened, the RSS — a lesson history keeps teaching, but Congress keeps refusing to learn.
Each ban collapsed under the weight of facts and the law. Yet here we are in 2025, with a minister whose knowledge of constitutional powers is as poor as his political instincts. What makes Kharge’s demand even more farcical is its timing. The Congress government in Karnataka is already struggling with mounting anti-incumbency, corruption scandals, and a rapid decline in law and order. Instead of addressing farmer distress, power shortages, and the state’s fiscal crisis, Kharge chooses to distract the public with divisive rhetoric. The BJP rightly called it a “tactic to divert attention from collapsing governance.” Ironically, while the Congress seeks to demonize the RSS, it conveniently forgets the Sangh’s contribution to the nation — from rescue operations during the 1962 Chinese invasion and the 1971 war, to tireless service during natural disasters such as the 2018 Kerala floods. The organisation has evolved into one of India’s largest social and cultural networks, with millions engaged in education, health, and relief work. To demand its ban is not just ignorant — it is political suicide. Priyank Kharge’s tirade also reflects a broader pattern of Congress hypocrisy. His father Mallikarjun Kharge has repeatedly accused the BJP and RSS of dividing India, yet it is the Congress that keeps resurrecting the language of division — Hindu versus secular, Sanatan versus modern. The Rahul Gandhi playbook of “Hate Hindutva” continues to define the party’s politics, despite its spectacular electoral failures. The truth is, Congress isn’t fighting the RSS — it’s fighting its own irrelevance. Every shrill anti-Sanatan slogan, every demand for a ban, is a desperate cry for attention from a party that has lost both its ideological moorings and moral compass. The RSS doesn’t need to respond; history already has. Every Congress attempt to suppress it has only made it stronger. This was evident in the Karnataka High Court’s recent observations while hearing a petition challenging the Siddaramaiah government’s circular issued following his cabinet colleague Priyank Kharge’s demand. The court faulted the government for preventing any lawful organisation from holding rallies or road marches — including one in Priyank Kharge’s own constituency — though it reserved further hearing for Friday. If Priyank Kharge believes he’s scoring political points by reviving the tired anti-RSS rhetoric of the 1970s, he might soon discover that the politics of hate has no place in a self-assured, resurgent India.
