By Scroll Staff
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said the organisation is recognised as a “body of individuals” and does not need formal registration, while highlighting that even “Hindu Dharma is not registered”, PTI reported.
At an event in Bengaluru to discuss the completion of 100 years of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bhagwat remarked: “RSS was established in 1925, so do you expect us to have registered with the British government?”
He said that after Independence, the government of independent India did not make registration compulsory and that the RSS functions legally as a body of individuals.
He added that both the Income Tax Department and the courts had acknowledged this status and granted tax exemptions.
Besides he added that “we were banned thrice, which means the government had recognised us; if we didn’t exist, whom would they have banned?”
The RSS, which is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was banned briefly thrice by the Union government since Independence, including after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
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