In 1966, the Congress government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had issued an order prohibiting the employees of the central government from participating in the activities of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The reason cited for this was that RSS is engaged in political activities.
The RSS, though, has always maintained that it is a social and cultural organisation and it does not engage in political activities
On 9 July, 2024, the Modi government came out with an order that nullified this 1966 order and lifted the ban on central government employees from participating in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Meanwhile the Madhya Pradesh High Court came out with a detailed order on 25 July, 2024 regarding the same issue. The High Court dealt with the issue of the ban on central government employees to join RSS.
Here are some excerpts from the High Court order (the complete court order is also available at the end of this article).
Excerpts
– The Court…laments the fact that it took almost five decades for the Central Government to realise its mistake; to acknowledge that an internationally renowned organisation like RSS was wrongly placed amongst the banned organisations of the country and that its removal therefrom is quintessential. Aspirations of many central government employees of serving the countries in many ways, therefore got diminished in these five decades because of this ban, which got removed only when it was brought to the notice of this Court vide the present proceedings
-The Court is compelled to believe and presume that perhaps there was never any material, study, survey or report at the relevant point of time on the basis of which the ruling dispensation arrived at a satisfaction that involvement and engagement of central government employees even with the apolitical/non-political activities of RSS must be banned for maintaining the communal fabric and secular character of the country.
– It’s a matter of general knowledge in public domain that today RSS is the only nationally established self-driven voluntary organisation outside the governmental bureaucratic hierarchy, which has highest membership drawn from all the districts and talukas of the country participating actively in religious, social, educational, health and many apolitical activities, under its umbrella, which have no pertinence to political activities of RSS. The realm of activities undertaken by the host of subsidiary organisations under the larger umbrella of RSS are multiple other than political activities, having no correlation with active politics. These apolitical activities may be undertaken by the volunteers purely out of community service, without political ambitions or goals constituting the comrade on the field. Thus, the majority of the activities of RSS today are not at all related to the political sphere, but span over many other multiple areas of social engagement.
– That membership of RSS per se may not aim at or drive oneself always to the involvement in the political activities of the organisation, much less being engaged in communal or anti-national or anti-secular activities. This fine distinction had perhaps been glossed over when the impugned OMs (Office Memorandums) were issued by the Central Government 45 to 50 years back.
– The issuance of the OMs painting the whole universe of even the apolitical activities of RSS as communal, anti-secular and against national interest is a decision having drastic consequences, not only for the organisation, but also everybody aspiring to associate with it with the noble interest of rendering community & public service.
Download full order of Madhya Pradesh High Court