Bengaluru

SeniorBJP leader R Ashoka on Tuesday hit out at Home Minister Priyank Kharge over the RSS registration issue, claiming that it was his strategy to counter Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is “daydreaming” that he alone will be the Congress’ CM candidate in the 2028 assembly elections.

He also hit out at the ruling party for raising questions regarding the Sangh’s registration, its legal status and sources of funding. Terming Kharge’s move as a “strategy” to quietly counter Shivakumar, who is “daydreaming” that he alone will be the CM candidate in the 2028 Assembly elections, Ashoka said, “In an attempt to curry favour by appeasing fake Gandhi high command in Delhi and somehow become the next chief ministerial candidate, Priyank Kharge has chosen to make the RSS a bogeyman.”

He also called Kharge the most “utter flop” minister in Karnataka’s history. “What moral authority does the Indian National Congress have to speak about the RSS when it has formed political alliances purely for the sake of power with an extremely divisive and anti-national organisation like the Muslim League, which was responsible for the partition of the country, and is governing in two states through such alliances?” Ashoka questioned in a post on ‘X’.

He alleged that when anti-national elements openly shouted “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans in front of the Vidhana Soudha, the sacred temple of democracy, Priyank Kharge chose to sit with his eyes and ears closed, took no action against them, and arrogantly defended them. “Such is the integrity of Priyank Kharge.”

“It is not only laughable but the height of shame that protectors of such anti-national thinking are questioning the legality and patriotism of the RSS, a nationalist organisation that has been serving Mother India selflessly and without expectations for the past hundred years,” he added.

Kharge had formally sought an explanation from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on the organisation’s legal status and “sources of donations, contributions and income”. In a letter to Bhagwat, the minister has asked the RSS to depute “authorised office-bearers” to explain the legal grounds on which it functions.