Bengaluru: Priyank Kharge, the tech-savvy Info Know-how (IT) Minister from the house state of India’s ‘Silicon Valley’, is broadly recognised as a relentless critic of the RSS.

Kharge, a Dalit chief and three-time MLA from Chittapur in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, has seldom spared a possibility to go after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological patron of the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP). A vocal critic of the RSS-BJP ecosystem, in addition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coverage and politics, he leaves little to the creativeness when going after the Sangh.

Talking to ThePrint, Priyank Kharge defined, “I’ve fairly easy questions for them. Is the RSS a registered organisation? The place do they get their funding? Why does it not search permission for any programmes from police authorities, however solely informs? Why did it not hoist the nationwide flag for over 50 years? Have they answered even one query of mine?” He added that for the centenary celebrations, the RSS tried to drive college students dwelling in hostels to participate in its ‘march previous’, which, Kharge referred to as, an try and radicalise and indoctrinate the youth.

Priyank Kharge is the son and political inheritor of Congress Nationwide President Mallikarjun Kharge, and one of many extra environment friendly and outstanding ministers in Karnataka Chief Minister (CM) Siddaramaiah’s cupboard. He juggles between a two-piece swimsuit for a gathering with chief government officers of multinational firms, because the state’s IT Minister, and a modest Nehru jacket because the Rural Growth & Panchayat Raj Minister.

But, it’s Priyank Kharge’s outspoken opposition to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, alongside along with his pointed assaults on the BJP, that outline his political persona. There are senior Congress leaders, equivalent to B.Ok. Hariprasad and Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad, who repeatedly tackle the RSS. Nevertheless, Kharge is seen as taking a extra aggressive line, very like the Chief of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi.

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– RSS refused to hoist the nationwide flag for…

— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) October 28, 2025

Based on analysts, this hardening stance is probably going to assist the 47-year-old minister and his politics, centred on a number of the most marginalised teams.

‘Questioning legitimacy’

Priyank Kharge entered the Karnataka meeting in 2013, representing the Chittapur seat in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi (Gulbarga). His rise has since been meteoric, with Kharge turning into a goal because the poster boy of dynasty politics quickly.

He was inducted into CM Siddaramaiah’s cupboard three years later, when he was simply 38. Because the then-government’s Minister for Info Know-how & Biotechnology (IT/BT), he appears a pure match, given his background in graphic design, adopted by jobs with startups and different firms in London.

Successive governments continued handy him vital portfolios, together with the Social Welfare Division, in H.D. Kumaraswamy’s Congress authorities and Janata Dal (Secular) coalition authorities, adopted by the agricultural improvement division from 2023. In the meantime, he additionally remained a outstanding ambassador for the IT/BT sector.

Nevertheless, his sharp feedback concerning the PM, RSS, and the BJP take the cake, overshadowing his different attributes.

Talking to ThePrint, Phani Rajanna, a Udupi-based tutorial and analyst, mentioned Priyank Kharge had taken a powerful stand in opposition to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at a time when different Congress leaders have been being seen as sympathetic to the Sangh or its practices.

“Priyank Kharge is taking a leaf out of Rahul Gandhi’s politics and going after the RSS. The RSS has grown sturdy, unfold its roots in every single place, and has turn into stronger throughout areas. However Priyank Kharge has questioned its very legitimacy, which creates a platform throughout the Congress to take a stand in opposition to the RSS,” he mentioned.

Karnataka Congress President D.Ok. Shivakumar singing the RSS anthem contained in the meeting, or MLAs nominating or appointing leaders linked with the Sangh to key authorities posts, had created doubts within the minds of the celebration’s help base within the state, in response to analysts.

The Kharges get pleasure from a substantial political clout within the Kalyana-Karnataka area, with its massive mixture of Dalits, Scheduled Tribes, backward lessons, Lingayats, and Muslims. The household belongs to the Holeya caste (SC). The group, traditionally, has labored as agricultural and handbook labourers. Although they’re now employed in numerous sectors, they proceed to face social and financial challenges as a result of their traditionally marginalised caste standing.

The BJP has a negligible presence within the Kalyana-Karnataka area. And, this area has been seeing rising resistance in opposition to caste-based discriminatory practices, equivalent to untouchability and violence.

The most important resistance to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s centenary celebrations earlier this month didn’t come from the Congress however from no less than a dozen Dalit organisations.

One of many main points that the state’s Dalits have had with the BJP is the celebration’s opposition to the continuing caste census. It got here throughout because the denial of social justice to all marginalised teams, with the Congress successfully leveraging that to its benefit.

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‘Anti-Hindutva, not anti-Lingayat’

A letter from Priyank Kharge on 12 October sought a ban on all RSS-linked actions in authorities establishments and public areas, portray an even bigger goal on his again. An order by CM Siddaramaiah’s authorities backed him just a few days later, thereby overshadowing the RSS’s centenary yr celebrations.

Kharge acquired threats on messages and calls. “Why did the RSS not condemn these threats?” he questioned, chatting with ThePrint.

Although Mallikarjuna Kharge has been a staunch critic of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, analysts say he all the time held again from making it his political mainstay. In Karnataka’s deeply entrenched caste politics, leaders seldom take positions that go in opposition to dominant communities, such because the Lingayats or Vokkaligas, even when their focus is only on constituencies with a major inhabitants of Dalits or Different Backward Lessons.

“In Congress, each is constructing their very own constituency. Siddaramaiah has lengthy projected himself because the champion of AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward lessons, and Dalits). Priyank Kharge has to construct on his father’s constituency, which is anti-Hindutva, however not anti-Lingayat,” Narendar Pani, JRD Tata Chair on the Nationwide Institute of Superior Research (NIAS), mentioned.

And so, they go after the RSS, he added.

There are underlying tensions throughout the Lingayat neighborhood over the BJP, because the celebration objects to the revival of clamour for a separate faith inside its core help base. On this backdrop, the Congress has been cautious to not go after the Lingayats. Its final mistake, which led the neighborhood to fully distance themselves from the Congress, was within the late Nineteen Eighties. On the time, the celebration was seen by the Different Backward Lessons (OBCs) as largely against the Mandal Fee suggestions.

In Karnataka, the Veerashaiva-Lingayat neighborhood falls underneath OBC Class 3B—based mostly on revenue. A small variety of Lingayat sub-castes are additionally listed within the central OBC checklist, which places the vast majority of them within the basic class.

Inside the Congress’s Muslim help base, anger has been rising. CM Siddaramaiah’s authorities has performed little to comprise the Sangh or its associates, particularly in Karnataka’s communally delicate coastal districts.

The newest spherical of ‘tit-for-tat’ murders based mostly on faith broke out in Could this yr. It led to appreciable outrage in opposition to CM Siddaramaiah’s authorities amongst Muslim teams.

“The Dalit and Muslim constituency is harbouring a grouse that the Congress will not be taking a powerful stand in opposition to the RSS. There may be additionally a big part of individuals in each the city and rural settings, who usually are not snug with how the RSS-BJP is aggressively pushing on communally charged subjects, however weren’t ready to precise themselves or discover a rallying level since no chief has been taking a powerful stand in opposition to it,” A. Narayana, a Bengaluru-based political analyst and college on the Azim Premji College, mentioned.

“Priyank Kharge, as an alternative of being like some other Congressman, is making an attempt to carve out an identification for himself by means of them [groups that oppose the RSS], which is able to assist in the long term,” Narayana added.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)

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