'From guru dakshina to luxury': Priyank Kharge calls new RSS headquarters in Delhi 'hotel', questions funding

Congress leader takes a jibe at the saffron outfit for 'dodging taxes' and 'evading accountability'

Continuing his attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Karnataka Minister for IT and BT Priyank Kharge has once again questioned the organisation over its funding methods and for remaining an unregistered body.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kharge shared an image of the RSS' new headquarters in Delhi, Keshav Kunj, a multi-storey building complex, and described it as looking like a "luxury hotel or high-end apartment complex".

He used the opportunity to question the RSS' funding methods, specifically the "Guru Dakshina" system of collecting donations from volunteers.

"This is the RSS headquarters in Delhi 'Keshav Kunj', reportedly built at a cost of around ₹200 crore, funded through 'Guru Dakshina' that range from as little as ₹5 to several lakhs. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an unregistered NGO, collects money from its 'volunteers' as Guru Dakshina in the name of the Bhagwa Dhwaj (saffron flag), which is treated as the organisation’s eternal Guru," he said in the post.

Kharge, a vocal critic of the RSS, which is the BJP's ideological parent and completed 100 years on October 2, 2025, took a jibe at the organisation for "dodging taxes" and "evading accountability".

"So effectively, anyone can collect crores in 'dakshina' in the name of a flag and still stay outside the normal scrutiny of tax authorities. Isn’t dodging taxes and evading accountability anti national?" he said in the post.

The Congress leader had earlier said that the sources of income of the saffron outfit “must” be declared as per the law. "This is a country where there are accounts for money given to God. Are they (RSS) bigger than God?” he had said.

The Minister had also taken exception to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s claims that the organisation had not registered in 1925 since the British were ruling then, against whom the then RSS sarsangchalak (K B Hedgewar) was “fighting at that time”.