The RSS is not registered under the Societies Act or the Trust Act. It has no PAN, files no income-tax returns, has no obligation to disclose donors, and is not accountable to RTI or FCRA. In purely legal terms, the most influential organisation in India is an organisation that, on paper, does not formally exist.

Its funding comes through “Guru Dakshina”—donations from members ranging from a few rupees to several lakhs, symbolically offered to the saffron flag rather than to a registered entity. This model allows the RSS to collect crores every year without the scrutiny applied to even the smallest NGO.

And that is the stark contrast:

• A charity feeding orphans faces compliance audits.
• A student group receives notices for minor reporting lapses.
• Even a roadside shopkeeper must justify every rupee of income.

But the ideological mother organisation of the ruling party remains exempt from the transparency required of ordinary citizens.

This raises a fundamental democratic question:

Should a body that influences national policy, political appointments, and cultural direction be allowed to operate with zero statutory oversight?

The RSS’s network—stretching through political, educational, labour, media, and cultural wings—makes it far more than a “cultural organisation.” It is a parallel power centre whose decisions shape public life, yet cannot be questioned through democratic channels. It holds influence without legal responsibility, authority without accountability.

The issue is not the lavishness of Keshav Kunj, but what it represents: a governance anomaly where an institution with enormous political reach functions beyond the mechanisms that safeguard transparency in a democracy.

If NGOs, activists, journalists, and citizens are routinely scrutinised, raided, or labelled “anti-national” over compliance issues, what then do we call an organisation that collects vast funds in the shadows and shapes the ideological spine of the state without placing a single financial document on public record?

Democracies do not weaken because people ask questions. They weaken when power becomes invisible, and when institutions that influence the nation most refuse to follow the rules applied to everyone else.

Keshav Kunj is not merely a building. It is a reminder of a deeper shift—away from democratic accountability and toward a political ecosystem where some institutions answer to no one.

And in today’s India, the reality is uncomfortably clear: The country is controlled by the BJP, and the BJP is controlled by the RSS—and that should concern every believer in constitutional democracy.

Courtesy: The AIDEM

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