Reading between the lines: Priyank Kharges ups ante against RSS, compares Delhi headquarters to ‘luxury hotel’

In his latest broadside against the RSS, Karnataka Congress’s Priyank Kharge on Thursday described its gleaming new headquarters in Delhi as a “luxury hotel” and “high-end apartment complex,” accusing the BJP’s ideological fountainhead of “dodging taxes and evading accountability.”

“At first glance, you could easily mistake this building for a luxury hotel or high-end apartment complex. But guess what it is? This is the RSS headquarters in Delhi’s “Keshav Kunj”, reportedly built at a cost of around Rs 200 crore, funded through “Guru Dakshina” that range from as little as Rs 5 to several lakhs,” Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge wrote on ‘X’.

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The relentless RSS critic wrote that the RSS, an unregistered NGO, collects money from “volunteers” as “guru dakshina” in the name of the ‘Bhagwa Dhwaj’ (saffron flag), which is regarded as the organisation’s eternal Guru. “So effectively, anyone can collect crores in “dakshina” in the name of a flag and still stay outside the normal scrutiny of tax authorities. Isn’t dodging taxes and evading accountability anti-national?” Karnataka’s tech-savvy IT Minister questioned.

Coming amid the still-unresolved leadership tussle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar (which Karnataka Congress leaders claim does not exist), Kharge’s latest remarks aimed at escalating his ongoing confrontation with the Sangh are interesting.

Incidentally, dismissing speculation of any rift over the Karnataka CM post, Congress MLC Yatindra Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that the high command has decided that there will be no change in the state’s leadership “as of now”. Siddaramaiah’s son Yatindra was quoted as saying: “There is no tussle for the CM post right now. I have already told you. Now everything is clear. The high command has clearly said, ‘there will be no change in the leadership’.”

Kharge’s ante peaked around October when he advocated banning RSS ‘shakhas’ and programmes in schools, colleges, temples, and public spaces, arguing that such gatherings indoctrinate youth with communal ideologies and breach civil service rules. Branding Sangh as the “most corrupt organisation” with “fake desh bhakts,” he also invoked history to note their “absence from the freedom struggle,” “failure to hoist the national flag”, and alleged role in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination to press his case.

Apart from a strategic move to consolidate base in Karnataka and counter BJP’s Hindutva narrative, analysts are sensing another angle to this regular Sangh bashing by Priyank—the son of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge—and who is positioning himself as a Dalit firebrand leader in the Karnataka political space. “Emulating Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s anti-RSS stance may be an attempt to make his presence more prominent and position himself as an option for OBC Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar—a prominent Vokkaliga leader,” they add.