Sunday, June 14, 2026.
Question by an Audience: What is your response to the Karnataka Government directed that the RSS activities are secretive and that the organization must register. What is your response?
Answer by Mohan Bhagwat: We do not feel the need to respond to this directive. There are countless unregistered entities across the country, and we are not secretive. We work entirely in the open. We reach out to people, engage with them, and communicate our message transparently. This is nothing but politics, and such tactics have been tried before. We are accustomed to them. In fact, if such things did not happen, we would feel something was out of the ordinary.
The Sangh was founded during British times. it born out of public will. It emerged from a genuine churning of minds, a collective deliberation that led to a shared conclusion, which then became the foundation of the Sangh. An organization of such origin requires no restriction.
Hindu Dharma itself is not registered. Many things are not registered. Registration is a requirement only for those seeking government funding.
Furthermore, the government is fully aware of the Sangh’s existence. We were banned twice, and both bans were lifted. Once by a court order, and once through Satyagraha. The very act of banning us confirms that the government recognized our existence. Over more than 100 years, no authority has ever told us to register. We submitted our written constitution to the government in the 1950s. At that time, had there been any issue, the government could have said, “All is well, but you must first register.” They did not say that.
So, why should we respond now?
This is politics, nothing more. The intent is twofold: to hamper the Sangh’s work on one hand, and to sow doubt in the minds of the people on the other. But neither is possible any longer, because people know us well.
Our karyakartas live and work in every locality. People see them every single day. Our shakhas meet on open grounds, visible to all. We hold public programs and have an enormous outreach. This year alone, we organized Hindu Sammelans in every block across the region. None of this is possible for a secretive organization. The facts speak for themselves.
