Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for appreciating the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and dubbed it as the “most divisive organisation”. Taking to social media X on Friday, Siddaramaiah stated, "On his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) the world’s biggest NGO. Let’s be clear: it is not an NGO; it is the world’s biggest for-political profit, for-hate, and most divisive organisation - unregistered, non-tax-paying, and conspiring to pit Indians against each other."
He said that the Red Fort is not a BJP rally stage, adding that it is a place of historical significance where PM Modi must speak for every Indian, and not advertise his party’s parent organisation. By praising the RSS, PM Modi spoke as an RSS pracharak, not as the leader of 140 crore people.
However, his praise today was nothing but a desperate move to appease the RSS, at a time when he is politically weakened and reliant on its backing for his own future,” he said. Siddaramaiah said that PM Modi claimed “the country is proud” of 100 years of RSS.
“Mr. Modi, you lose the moral right to speak for the whole country when you endorse an organisation that had no role in the freedom struggle, opposed the Tricolour, and has worked against the idea of an equal and inclusive India," he said.Siddaramaiah pointed out that RSS is the same organisation whose ideology inspired the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and which has been banned three times in independent India for spreading hate.
“Does PM Modi not know that the RSS has twisted true Hinduism - a faith of diversity and tolerance - into a narrow vision where anyone outside it is treated as a second-class citizen without rights?” he said. Siddaramaiah asked, does PM Modi not know that for decades the RSS has engineered and fuelled communal violence across India - a well-documented record - and corrupted young minds through its networks?
“Does PM Modi not see that this supremacist vision denies equality to millions, poisons harmony, and directly contradicts the Constitution?” he said.Siddaramaiah said that Independence Day is a time to honour those who united India, but instead, PM Modi glorified a force that thrives on polarisation, had no role in independence, and whose forefathers even collaborated with the British.
He said that no wonder today’s authoritarianism of PM Modi and the BJP mirrors British colonialism. "Our freedom was won by people of every religion, caste, and language, united under the tricolour. No organisation is bigger than that unity or above the Constitution.
And no Prime Minister - no matter the power he wields - can turn Independence Day into a tribute to those who divide India and dream of ruling it in the spirit of its former colonisers," he said. Siddaramaiah said that PM Modi should be “ashamed” of undermining the very idea of India from the ramparts of the Red Fort.