.@PriyankKhargeโs letter addressed to RSS Chief Shri Mohan Bhagwat Ji is not an exercise in constitutional inquiry. It is a calculated political provocation: thin on law, thick on presumption, and conspicuously marked by the entitlement of dynastic politics. For a full century, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has served the nation openly, in the full glare of public scrutiny: building character, fostering discipline, strengthening social cohesion, and doing so without seeking state patronage. Certain Congress leaders, by contrast, have preferred suspect diplomacy - flying to China to sign an MoU with the Chinese Communist Party, shrouded in secrecy and political discomfort. The contrast could not be starker. One has operated in Indian sunlight for a hundred years. The other has repeatedly found comfort in foreign shadows. Let us address Priyank Khargeโs demands with the precision they lack. Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution guarantees every citizen the fundamental right to form associations, unions or co-operative societies. This is not a privilege granted by the State. It is a constitutional freedom. Article 19(4) permits reasonable restrictions on this freedom only on specified constitutional grounds, and only by authority of law. Nowhere does the Constitution mandate that every voluntary association must first obtain registration from the State before it can exist or function. The RSS is precisely such a voluntary association of citizens, united by a shared ideological, cultural and national vision. It requires no certificate of existence from a minister. It requires no political permission slip from a dynast. It requires no registration merely because a Congress leader wishes to manufacture a controversy. Priyank Khargeโs demand that the RSS must โregisterโ or justify its legal existence is not rooted in constitutional text, statutory obligation or settled principle. It is a whimsical assertion unsupported by law. In a constitutional democracy governed by the Rule of Law, no individual, however exalted his office, may issue dictates and expect compliance merely because he occupies public office. Priyank Kharge may be a Minister in the Government of Karnataka. That office confers upon him only those executive powers that law recognises. It does not confer upon him the authority to summon any citizen or organisation and demand that it restructure itself according to his personal fancies. Such demands, unmoored from any legal mandate, are non est in law. A dynast indulged by inheritance does not become larger than the Constitution merely because he sits in a ministerial chair. It was perhaps in anticipation of precisely this species of overreach by those clothed with temporary authority that Thomas Fuller observed: โBe you ever so high, the law is above you.โ Those words were later immortalised by Lord Denning in The Due Process of Law. The point applies squarely here. Further, Mr. Khargeโs insistence on disclosure of funding, expenditure, assets and taxation conveniently ignores settled judicial pronouncements. The question of taxability of Gurudakshina - the voluntary offerings received by the RSS from its members - has already been examined by a constitutional court. In Commissioner of Income-Tax vs. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Patna High Court upheld the principle of mutuality and held that Gurudakshina received from members is not taxable. The RSS has never claimed exemption from the law. It has simply refused to be bullied into accepting obligations that the law itself does not impose. For a hundred years, it has functioned openly, published its activities, withstood bans, political hostility and repeated attempts by Congress governments to delegitimise it. It has done so without taxpayer money. Or foreign funding. The letter addressed by Junior Kharge in the garb of accountability stems from legal misconception and political malice. It is unworthy of the constitutional office he holds and of the democratic traditions he claims to defend. The RSS needs no certificate of good conduct from any dynast, however high his office. The law remains above all of us. Kharge juniorโs pompous demands lie beneath it.
