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Has Congress Really Vowed to Ban RSS? A Fact Check

Kashif Kakvi |
The Congress manifesto promises to revoke a government order allowing its staff to take part in RSS shakhas and to ban the use of government property for holding shakhas.
Congress

Bhopal: A day after the release of the Congress party’s manifesto for the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, a tweet by the Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the morning of November 11 kept newsrooms and social media busy throughout the day ridiculing the Congress for promising a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), if voted to power in the state in the elections on November 28.

Hours after the tweet, state BJP chief Rakesh Singh addressed the media and said, “RSS is a disciplined social and cultural organisation and this has been accepted even by the court. But Congress is trying to ban it and the party has promised to do it in its election manifesto.”

He further said, “It shows the dual face of the Congress leadership, who project themselves as a pro-Hindu party and are now planning to ban a cultural organisation like the RSS, just to get minority votes and project the institution as anti-minority.”

Later, he challenged the Congress, “If they have guts, then impose the ban on the RSS.”

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After the press conference, news flashed across news channels and web portals with the headline ‘Congress vows to ban RSS and RSS shakhas if voted to power in MP’.

Soon after, the issue was trending on Twitter and Facebook as well with the hashtag #CongressFearsRSS.

BJP Fooling Voters?

But no television channel or web portal took the pain to check the facts and ask Congress leaders about what the manifesto actually includes.

Congress leaders, led by the state chief Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijay Singh and others, had released the manifesto on Saturday in the state capital. Among many promises, the party had promised to revoke a state government order allowing its staff to take part in RSS shakhas and to ban the use of government property for holding it. 

But the issue triggered a controversy in the poll-bound state and the BJP portrayed this issue in such a way to make it appear that Congress has announced to ban the RSS and RSS shakhas. And the saffron party somewhat succeeded in it too.

The truth came to light when Kamal Nath and other Congress leaders countered the BJP’s claims on Twitter. In a series of tweets, they refuted the BJP’s claim saying that the saffron party’s motive is to divert the issue and polarise Hindu votes.

The ban was imposed by the Congress party first in 1981 and revived in 2000, threatening employees with disciplinary action under the M P Civil Service (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules of 1966 if they were found attending RSS shakhas. Section 5 (1) of these rules prevents employees from becoming a member of any political party or organisation which takes part in political activities. They are also not allowed to take part in political agitations or fundraising.

CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan issued orders revoking the ban in 2006 but it became public only in September 2006. The one-line order says the restrictions imposed by the civil service rules are not applicable to the RSS. 

Commenting on the issue, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “In the manifesto, Congress has promised to revoke the state government’s orders which allow holding RSS shakhas in government buildings and giving relaxation to government employees to attend it.There is no mention of banning RSS in the manifesto. As usual they are spreading lies just to cover up the real issues in which they have drastically failed.”   

Interestingly, holding RSS shakhas at government buildings and attending of the shakhas by government employees was restricted during BJP leader Uma Bharati’s Chief Ministerial tenure as also during Shivraj Singh Chouhan's first regime which was later revoked.

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