BENGALURU: Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge has taken a swipe at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after a letter to a Bengaluru police station circulated on social media. The letter describes a Vijayadashami route march planned for Sunday, October 25.
The letter, in Kannada and with names redacted in the circulated copy, is addressed to the Nandini Layout police inspector (traffic) and station which is located in the Bangalore north division. It says the RSS will hold its Vijayadashami "path sanchalan" from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm, starting at 9:30 am from Apollo National School Ground in Chowdeshwari Nagar.
It lists a ten-point route through the neighbourhood, including Srinivasa Temple Road, Pipeline Bridge, SVS School Road and Ram Mandir Road. It closes with a "request" and says the information is meant for the police's "attention". It carries a police station stamp, which may only acknowledge receipt, since the document does not say whether permission was sought or granted.
In a post on X, Home Minister Kharge, addressing the "dearest Swayamsevaks" with a Dasara greeting, said that "informing" the Home Department or asking it to "cooperate" is not obtaining permission. He urged the organisation to file an application through the prescribed procedure open to all groups and wait for formal approval.
He cited the RSS's own Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha annual report for 2025-26, which he said records 562 route marches in Karnataka with 2,21,963 uniformed participants. If such numbers marched at once, he argued, police would need to plan deployment, transport, food, traffic and security, all using public resources.
TNIE spoke to a former police commissioner who confirmed that usually for any route March they seek permission and permission is given at the police station level.
The exchange however shows a dispute over whether a customary religious-cultural procession needs permission or only prior intimation. Police sources said the police need to be informed and one can take out a March after due permission because when the police are not present the crowd control becomes difficult. The RSS has long held such marches, and its supporters are likely to say a notice to local police is standard practice. The state government's position, as Kharge frames it, is that large uniformed gatherings on public roads need formal approval like any other organisation's.
The note also said that the circulated letter concerns one locality. Police sources said jurisdictional Police Stations usually give permissions for such route marches and the police make necessary arrangements to ensure that law and order is not threatened should anything untoward happen. Police said the law is the same for everyone and all are equal in the eyes of the law. The law mandates that whoever takes out a procession needs to take permission from the police who need to ensure necessary arrangements are in place, it said.
