A 58-year-old ban on government employees being members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was lifted by the Centre earlier this month.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindutva group, is the parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It has been banned three times since Independence. Critics say it promotes Hindu supremacy and intolerance of minorities.
Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera shared on social media an office memorandum issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on July 9, concerning the “participation of the government servants in the activities of RSS”.
The document referred to earlier office memoranda on the subject that were issued on November 30, 1966, July 25, 1970, and October 28, 1980.
“The aforesaid instructions were reviewed and it was decided to remove the mention of Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (R.S.S.S)” from the impugned memoranda, the document shared by the Congress leaders stated.
A copy of the order was not available on the department’s website as of Monday morning.
Sunil Ambekar, the publicity chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, hailed the Centre's decision on Monday.
“Due to its political interests, the government at the time had baselessly banned the government employees from participating in the activities of a constructive organisation like the Sangh,” Ambekar said in a social media post. “The present decision of the government is appropriate and strengthens the democratic system of India.”
According to The Hindu, the November 1966 office memorandum had said: “As certain doubts have been raised about the government’s policy with respect to the membership of and participation in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh and the Jamaat-e-Islami by government servants, it is clarified that government have always held the activities of these two organisations to be of such a nature that participation in them by government servants would attract the Central Civil Services Conduct Rules. Any government servant, who is a member of or is otherwise associated with the aforesaid organisations or with their activities is liable to disciplinary action.”
“Sardar Patel had banned the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] in February 1948 following Gandhiji’s assassination,” Ramesh wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “Subsequently, the ban was withdrawn on assurances of good behaviour. Even after this the RSS never flew the Tiranga in Nagpur.”
The Hindutva group is headquartered in Nagpur.
Ramesh added: “In 1966, a ban was imposed – and rightly so – on government employees taking part in RSS activities. After June 4th 2024, relations between the self-anointed non-biological PM [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] and the RSS have nosedived. On July 9, 2024, the 58-year ban that was in force even during Mr [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee’s tenure as PM was removed. The bureaucracy can now come in knickers too I suppose.”
Ramesh was referring to the khaki shorts that were part of the Hindutva organisation’s uniform for its members until October 2016.
The BJP’s publicity cell chief Amit Malviya also posted a copy of the Department of Personnel and Training’s July 9 order on social media platform X.
“The unconstitutional order issued 58 years ago, in 1966, imposing a ban on Govt employees taking part in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been withdrawn by the Modi Govt,” Malviya wrote. “The original order shouldn’t have been passed in the first place.”
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