Bengaluru, Oct 14 (IANS) Karnataka Minister for RDPR, IT and BT, Priyank Kharge, stated on Tuesday that he and his family have been subjected to threats and abuse for the past two days for questioning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and demanding a ban on its activities in public spaces.

Taking to social media X, Minister Priyank, son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, stated, “For the past two days, my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Calls filled with threats, intimidation and the filthiest abuse directed at me and my family, simply because I dared to question and restrain RSS activities in government schools, colleges and public institutions.”

“But I’m neither shaken nor surprised. When the RSS didn’t spare Mahatma Gandhi or Babasaheb Ambedkar, why would they spare me?” he questioned.

“If they think threats and personal jibes will silence me, they are mistaken. This has just begun,” he challenged.

Priyank further stated, “It is time to build a society founded on the principles of Buddha, Basavanna and Babasaheb, society rooted in equality, reason and compassion and purge this nation of the most dangerous viRuSS.”

Priyank Kharge had written a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah regarding a ban on RSS activities in public spaces and in the premises of schools and college grounds, stirring a controversy. Countering this, the BJP released a photo showing Mallikarjun Kharge at an RSS meeting in Bengaluru and slammed him.

Priyank Kharge, further defending his demand to ban the public activities of the RSS, said on Monday that his father had gone to an RSS event only to warn them against creating mischief.

Also, responding to the incident of a suicide by a Kerala man allegedly because of years of sexual abuse at RSS camps, Priyank Kharge alleged that sexual harassment is happening within the RSS in the state as well.

Kharge stated, “If one sees the victim Kerala man’s post on Instagram, one can clearly state that he had undergone sexual harassment at the RSS events. It’s not only in Kerala, it is happening in our state as well (Karnataka).”

“One Hanume Gowda has written a book in this regard on how in the RSS sexual harassment is given. I have been telling that the RSS is the most secretive organization in the whole world. Why this secrecy and who are they?” Minister Priyank Kharge questioned.

–IANS

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