Bangalore: Priyank Kharge, a tech-savvy info know-how (IT) minister from the house of India’s ‘Silicon Valley’, is extensively referred to as an unrelenting critic of the RSS.
Kharge, a Dalit chief and three-time MLA from Chittapur in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, hardly ever misses a chance to go after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological patron of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP). A vocal critic of the RSS-BJP ecosystem and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s insurance policies and politics, he leaves little to the creativeness in going after the Sangh.
On this week’s X publish, Kharge mocked RSS by way of a number of questions. These embrace whether or not the RSS participated within the freedom wrestle and burnt down the Indian Structure whereas demanding ‘Manusmriti’ as a substitute, with ‘true’ or ‘false’ choices under, with ‘true’ cheekily emphasised.
Chatting with ThePrint, Priyank Kharge defined, “I’ve a quite simple query for them. Is RSS a registered group? The place does it get its funds from? Why do they not search permission from legislation enforcement authorities for any program and solely present info? Why have they not hoisted the nationwide flag for over 50 years? Have they answered any of my questions?” He additional added that within the run-up to the centenary celebrations, the RSS tried to power college students residing in hostels to take part in its “previous march”. Kharge referred to as this an try to radicalize and indoctrinate younger individuals.
Priyank Kharge is the son and political successor of Congress Nationwide President Mallikarjun Kharge and one of many proficient and distinguished ministers in Karnataka Chief Minister (CM) Siddaramaiah’s cupboard. He shifts between two-piece fits to attend conferences with multinational chief executives because the state’s IT minister and a modest Nehru jacket as the agricultural growth and panchayat raj minister.
However what defines Priyank Kharge’s political character is his outspoken opposition to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, alongside along with his sharp assaults on the Bharatiya Janata Celebration. Some senior Congress leaders, equivalent to BK Hariprasad and Karnataka Union Minister Santosh Lad, recurrently use the RSS. However Kharge, like opposition chief Rahul Gandhi, is anticipated to take a extra aggressive line.
I appear to be paying full consideration to the legions of right-wing trolls who resort to non-public assaults, so let’s flip this right into a studying second for them.
Here’s a little quiz that can assist the BJP leaders evaluation the historical past classes on viRSS.
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– RSS refused to hoist the nationwide flag…
— PriyankKharge (@PriyankKharge) October 28, 2025
Analysts say the hardline stance is probably going to assist the 47-year-old minister and his politics, which middle on among the most marginalized teams.
“Questioning legitimacy”
Priyank Kharji joined the Karnataka Meeting in 2013, representing Chittapur seat in Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), Karnataka. Since then, his rise has been meteoric, and Kazi quickly turns into a goal as a figurehead of dynastic politics.
Three years later, at simply 38 years previous, he grew to become a minister in CM Siddaramaiah’s cupboard. As the federal government’s Minister for Data Know-how and Biotechnology (IT/BT) on the time, he appears a pure match given his background in graphic design and subsequent work at startups and different firms in London.
Successive governments went on to offer him key portfolios together with the social welfare division in HD Kumaraswamy’s Congress authorities and the Janata Dal (Secular) coalition authorities, adopted by the agricultural growth division from 2023. Throughout that point, he additionally remained a distinguished ambassador for the IT/BT sector.
However his sharp feedback on the Prime Minister, the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Celebration are important and overshadow his different attributes.
Udupi-based tutorial and analyst Pani Rajanna advised ThePrint that Priyank Kharge took a robust stand in opposition to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at a time when different Congress leaders have been seen as sympathetic to the Sangh and its practices.
“Priyank Kharge has withdrawn from Rahul Gandhi’s politics and is pursuing the RSS. The RSS is increasing its affect, taking root in numerous locations and changing into stronger throughout areas. Nonetheless, Priyank Kharge has doubts about its very legitimacy, which is why a platform in opposition to the RSS has been shaped within the Congress,” he stated.
Analysts say Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar’s singing of RSS anthems within the meeting corridor and the nomination and appointment of Sangh-linked leaders by MLAs to key authorities posts have raised doubts within the minds of the get together’s base within the state.
The Kharji household has appreciable political affect in Kalyana-Karnataka, a state with a big mixture of Dalits, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Lessons, Lingayats, and Muslims. The household belongs to the Holeya caste (SC). This group has traditionally labored as agricultural laborers and handbook laborers. Though they’re now employed in quite a lot of sectors, they proceed to face social and financial challenges because of their traditionally marginalized caste standing.
The Bharatiya Janata Celebration has a negligible presence within the Kalyana-Karnataka area. And the area is witnessing rising resistance to caste-based discriminatory practices equivalent to untouchability and violence.
The most important resistance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s centenary celebrations earlier this month got here not from the Congress however from at the least a dozen Dalit organizations.
One of many main points Dalits within the state have with the Bharatiya Janata Celebration is the get together’s opposition to the continuing caste census. This was perceived as a denial of social justice to all marginalized teams, and Congress used it successfully.
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“Not anti-Lingayat, however anti-Hindutva.”
Priyank Kharge’s October 12 letter, calling for a ban on all RSS-related actions in authorities workplaces and public locations, has a much bigger purpose on his again. CM Siddaramaiah’s authorities’s order got here in his favor just some days later, thereby overshadowing the RSS’s centenary celebrations.
Karge acquired threats by way of messages and calls. “Why didn’t the RSS condemn these threats?” he requested ThePrint.
Though Mallikarjuna Kharji has been a harsh critic of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, analysts say he has at all times avoided making it a political pillar. In Karnataka’s deeply entrenched caste politics, leaders hardly ever take positions in opposition to dominant communities equivalent to Lingayats and Vokkaligas, even when they’re purely targeted on constituencies dominated by Dalits and different backward courses.
“In Congress, every particular person is constructing their very own constituency. Siddaramaiah has lengthy projected himself because the champion of AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward courses and Dalits). Priya Nku Kharge has to construct on his father’s constituency, which is anti-Hindutva however not anti-Lingayat,” stated Narendar Pani, JRD Tata chairman of the Nationwide Institute of Superior Research (NIAS).
They usually go after RSS, he added.
There are underlying tensions inside the Lingayat neighborhood over the BJP, which opposes the resurgence of requires another faith inside its core assist base. In opposition to this backdrop, Congress has been cautious to not go after Lingayats. The final mistake that led to the neighborhood distancing itself utterly from Congress was within the late Nineteen Eighties. At the moment, the get together was seen by the Different Backward Lessons (OBCs) as largely against the Mandal Fee’s suggestions.
The Veerashaiva Lingayat neighborhood in Karnataka falls below OBC class 3B based mostly on revenue. Just a few Lingayat sub-castes are additionally included within the central OBC listing, most of which fall below the overall class.
Anger is rising inside Congress’s Muslim base. CM Siddaramaiah’s authorities has executed little to comprise the Sangh and its associates, particularly within the socially delicate coastal areas of Karnataka.
The most recent religious-based “tit-for-tat” homicide occurred in Could this yr. This brought about appreciable anger amongst Muslim teams in opposition to the CM Siddaramaiah authorities.
“Dalit and Muslim constituencies are dissatisfied that the Congress shouldn’t be taking a robust stance in opposition to the RSS.Additionally, giant sections in each city and rural areas are uncomfortable with the aggressiveness of the RSS-BJP in selling widespread themes. There are individuals, however there isn’t a management taking a robust stand in opposition to the RSS, so that they weren’t ready to precise their views or discover a rallying level,” stated A. Narayana, a Bengaluru-based political analyst and school member on the institute. Azim Premji College stated.
“Priyank Kharge is making an attempt to create his personal id by way of them (teams against the RSS) and never like different MPs. That may assist in the long term,” Narayana added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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