Ban on govt employees joining RSS activities lifted; Congress questions order

The Congress on Sunday, 21 July, drew attention to a purported central government order from 9 July that claims to have lifted a ban on government employees' active participation in RSS activities.

While the veracity of the purported government order, which was posted on X by Congress leaders, could not be ascertained immediately, BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya himself 'owned' it, sharing the screenshot of the order and posting on X that an "unconstitutional" directive issued 58 years ago has been withdrawn by the Modi government.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh also shared the same memorandum, dated 9 July, issued by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension. It does seem to pertain to the participation of government servants in the activities of the RSS. It reads:

In his post with the order pictured, Ramesh said: 'Sardar Patel had banned the RSS in February 1948 following Gandhi-ji's assassination. Subsequently, the ban was withdrawn on assurances of good behaviour. Even after this the RSS never flew the tiranga in Nagpur.'

In 1966, a ban was imposed, Ramesh said, on government employees taking part in RSS activities — and rightly so.

'After 4 June 2024, relations between the self-anointed non-biological PM and the RSS have nosedived. On 9 July 2024, the 58-year ban that was in force even during Mr Vajpayee's tenure as PM was removed,' he added.

'The bureaucracy can now come in knickers too I suppose,' Ramesh said, alluding to the RSS uniform of khaki shorts, which was replaced by brown trousers in 2016.

The Congress leader also shared a screenshot of the original order dated 30 November 1966, which bans the association of government servants with the activities of the RSS and the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Tagging the 9 July order, BJP's Amit Malviya for his part held the original order shouldn't have been passed in the first place.