Bengaluru, 14 Oct

Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Tuesday claimed that he has been receiving phone calls "filled with threats, intimidation and filthiest abuses" directed at him and his family, as he dared to question and restrain RSS activities in government schools, colleges and public institutions.

"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," Kharge said in a post on 'X'.

However, the Minister, who is the son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, asserted that he was neither shaken nor surprised.

“When the RSS didn’t spare Mahatma Gandhi or Babasaheb Ambedkar, why would they spare me?” he remarked.

Reiterating his resolve, Kharge, who is Information Technology and Biotechnology Minister, said, “If they (RSS) think threats and personal jibes will silence me, they are mistaken. This has just begun.”

Calling for a more equitable and compassionate society, he added, “It is time to build a society founded on the principles of Buddha, Basavanna and Babasaheb, a society rooted in equality, reason and compassion, and purge this nation of the most dangerous viRuSS.”

The Minister recently wrote to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah requesting him to ban RSS activities in government schools and colleges and public places.

“An organisation called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been conducting its shakhas in government and government-aided schools, as well as in public grounds, where slogans are shouted and negative ideas are instilled in the minds of children and youth," he wrote in his letter.

He claimed that such practices go against India’s unity and the spirit of the Constitution.

Later speaking to reporters, Kharge said he had been in a similar situation when Basavaraj Bommai was the Chief Minister.

“The police officers who investigated the matter in the past had told me that the IP addresses of the calls are masked and no one can figure out from where the call has been made. They told me officially that they cannot do much. Even now the same has happened,” he said.

According to Kharge, whenever he spoke out against the system, he received such calls.

“Let them make threat calls, I am not going to be intimidated."

Addressing reporters, Siddaramaiah said he is not aware of threat calls to Priyank Kharge.

“I don’t know about any such development. I will speak to Priyank Kharge,” he said.

The Chief Minister on Monday said he has forwarded Kharge’s letter to the Chief Secretary to find out what the Tamil Nadu government has done to stop RSS activities in government and public properties.