New Delhi: Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge has challenged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to show him under which laws the organisation is exempted from being accountable to the government, asking how in a country where every street vendor must register, an body like the RSS can be above the law.Deccan Herald reported on Kharge’s comments from June 10, in which the Congress leader also invited RSS leaders to his office to review the legal status of the organisation as an alternative measure.“Let the RSS call me to its Keshava Krupa headquarters. Let them show me the law under which they are exempted from being accountable to the government. Or, let them come to my office with documents. Let them show how they are exempt from Constitutional provisions. I will evaluate it. If I’m wrong, I’ll apologise. Otherwise, let them make amends,” he was quoted as having said.Kharge has kept the heat on the RSS, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological fountainhead, which has been described by its chief Mohan Bhagwat as a body that does not need formal registration.Bhagwat had claimed, controversially, that the RSS functions as a “body of individuals” already recognised under existing legal provisions.Bhagwat had said: “We are categorised as (a) body of individuals. And we are a recognised organisation. The income tax department asked us to pay income tax, and there was litigation. The court said, ‘This is a body of individuals and our guru dakshina (donation) was exempted from income tax’.”Last month, Kharge had demanded a “public audit” of the party and its network of over 2,500 affiliated organisations.While the RSS and its affiliated organisations continue to be unregistered and therefore outside the ambit of the law, the Modi government has increasingly limited the ways many NGOs can function by using its FCRA law. The law has increasingly been used to monitor and restrict operations of international organisations or domestic organisations which receive international funds, impinging upon civil rights, humanitarian causes and the freedom of religion.In a post on X, he had raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own travel history from before he entered politics. “When Modiji was still a self-proclaimed “Fakir” and an RSS pracharak, he reportedly travelled to more than 14 countries, including the US, Germany, UK, Guyana, Canada, Malaysia and France,” Kharge wrote. “Who paid for those trips? Was it funded by the RSS, the so-called unregistered “NGO”?”The Deccan Herald report noted Kharge as having said on June 10 that “in a country where even a street vendor must register, temples and Gods must account for every donation received and citizens must file tax returns,” the RSS cannot be exempted.“They keep referring to themselves as a body of individuals. Even Bangalore Club is a body of individuals,” he said.In a tweet after taking charge as the home minister, Priyank asked the RSS to “keep your documents ready” for registration, leading BJP leader C.T. Ravi to respond by claiming that prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had tried to ban the RSS and failed.“I don’t think C.T. Ravi knows his history. RSS leaders fell at the feet of Nehru and Sardar Patel after the organisation was banned. When Indira Gandhi banned the RSS, its sarsanghachalak wrote a long, appreciative letter supporting the Emergency,” Kharge told Deccan Herald.