'Even Hindu dharma is not...': Mohan Bhagwat's response to debate over RSS legal status, tax exemption

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday, i.e., November 9, responded to an ongoing debate over why the organisation, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is not formally registered. "Many things are not registered. Even Hindu dharma (religion) is not registered,” Bhagwat has said, as per news agency PTI. 

Recalling the three times the RSS has been banned in the past, Bhagwat said, "Hence the government has recognised us; If we were not there, whom did they ban?" The RSS Chief further argued, "Should we have registered RSS with British government as it was established in 1925?"

At the time of the independence in 1947, Bhagwat said, “The government did not make it compulsory to register. Mohan Bhagwat also addressed the organisation's tax status, highlighting the income tax department and courts have "noted that RSS is a body of individuals", exempting it from tax.

RSS aims to organise Hindu society 

A day earlier, at an event in Bengaluru, Mohan Bhagwat said, "Hindus are responsible for Bharat. There is no 'Ahindu' (non-Hindu) in India as everyone in India, including Muslims and Christians for instance, are descendants of the same ancestors, and the core culture of the country is Hindu."