Registration of RSS: Digvijaya accuses Bhagwat of hurting sentiments of Sanatan Dharma followers

Bhopal, Nov 12 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday accused RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat of insulting the followers of the Sanatan Dharma by `comparing' the non-registration of the Sangh to the non-registration of Hinduism.

In a letter to Bhagwat, Singh demanded that he apologise to the Hindus for this.

"By comparing the RSS's non-registration to (that of) Hinduism, you have insulted millions of Sanatan Dharma followers. I strongly condemn this statement," the Rajya Sabha member wrote.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh can never be synonymous with Hinduism because Hinduism's roots go back thousands of years, he said.

Linking the Sangh with Hinduism is not only historically inaccurate but also hurts the sentiments of millions of Sanatan Dharma followers, and if Sangh calls itself a representative of the religion, it is proof of its arrogance and ignorance, Singh added.

"Since independence, millions of voluntary organisations, large and small, are registered under laws established in the country and states, and they provide details of their income and expenditure. However, the RSS, which incurs income and expenditure worth crores of rupees every year, instead of providing accounts, continues to evade registration laws," the Congress leader alleged.

If the RSS is exempt from paying income tax, Bhagwat should produce the order granting the exemption, he demanded.

The RSS lacks faith in the country's constitutional system and the Constitution, hence Bhagwat was concocting excuses for the Sangh not being registered, Singh claimed.

"Our Vedas and Puranas have been the center of faith for Hindus for centuries. Not only Hinduism, no religion in the world is registered anywhere," said the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister.

Bhagwat should show the courage to express regret by withdrawing his words, Singh further said.

Reacting to the tirade, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh accused the veteran leader of making "baseless" allegations to gain respect of the Congress high command.

Minister Vishwas Sarang said, "Everyone knows what the RSS has done for the country, it is not right to make allegations without facts just to remain in media headlines." Speaking in Bengaluru on November 9, Bhagwat, apparently responding to Congress leaders' swipes over the RSS operating without registration, said the organisation is recognised as a body of individuals.

"RSS was established in 1925, so do you expect us to have registered with the British government?" he asked while replying to a question during an in-house question-and-answer session organised by the Sangh.

He added that after Independence, the Government of India did not make registration compulsory.

The IT department and courts have termed RSS as a body of individuals and the organisation was exempted from income tax, Bhagwat further said, adding that there are many entities which are not registered. "Even Hindu dharma is not registered," he remarked. PTI BNS MAS KRK