Digvijaya writes to Dhankhar, urges him to amend ruling on RSS

A day after Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar ruled that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has constitutional rights to participate in the development journey of the country, senior Congress leader and member of the Upper House Digvijaya Singh has written to him, requesting him to amend his ruling.

Mr. Singh argued that the RSS is an “unregistered” organisation and urged Mr. Dhankhar to allow him to raise the issue on the floor of the House under a relevant rule of the Rajya Sabha.

“Sir, I would very humbly like to bring to your observations certain facts regarding RSS. It is an unregistered organisation which neither has membership nor any bank account,” Mr. Singh said in his letter.

“I would like to draw your attention to your observations where you have given an unregistered body the constitutional rights to intervene unabashedly in functioning of government at all levels,” he added.

Stating that he would like to raise the issue under Rule 238 (iv), Mr. Singh added, “Therefore under the above Rule, I am requesting you to kindly allow me to raise this issue and plead that you may kindly accept the fact that RSS is not a registered body under any law in our Constitution and amend your ruling”.

Separately, Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, alleged that the organisation had a has “a long history of corroding the sovereignty and integrity of India”. Mr. Ramesh said the RSS was an “anathema” to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the country’s first Home Minister.

“The man who would have been horrified by the clean chits and certificates of appreciation being awarded in recent days to the RSS would have been none other than the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel himself. Multiple documents from his tenure as the Home Minister reveal his profound horror at its violent, anti-Constitutional, and anti-national character,” Mr. Ramesh added.