‘Protests are democratic right’: RSS opts for measured response to Opposition stir

As the Opposition intensifies protests against the government and chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged electoral irregularities, leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reiterated the public’s right to protest with a caveat that any such campaign should not be against national interest.

A senior RSS functionary said the Sangh, which has recently concluded its centenary celebrations, did not want the youth to see the government as an adversary. “The Sangh believes in dialogue. For years the Sangh was politically and socially victimised, but we did not stop engagement with society,” the functionary said, explaining the Sangh’s measured stance.

“There can be concerns that need attention whether these are limited to a set of people or a state, but while the government’s accountability is fixed, society too must do its bit by not allowing vested interests to vitiate and mislead our youth,” he said.

The cautious response follows internal feedback received about the union government’s handling of the students’ protest over paper leaks in July where the police were accused of using disproportionate force to disperse students as they tried to march to Parliament on July 20. The subsequent police action gave the Opposition leverage to attack the government in and outside Parliament.

With assembly elections approaching across five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the RSS is keen to prevent youth discontent from consolidating.

To be sure, the RSS has not commented on the November 1 rally by Opposition parties at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan that has been branded by the BJP as a “calculated conspiracy to plunge the nation into anarchy, in the name of democracy”.

But a day before the big gathering in the heart of the national capital, the RSS, which is meeting for its annual Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal Baithak in Indore, reiterated its position on the ongoing protests and the Opposition’s campaign.

Sunil Ambekar, the chief spokesperson of the Sangh, in response to a question on whether the organisation’s outreach towards the Gen Z was delayed, said, while citizens have every right to question issues of national concern, national interest is paramount.

But he underlined that protests should not be misused by forces working against the country and that the Sangh keeps a watch on such events and will continue to do so.

“...Citizens have every right to question, if the issues are of national concern…It has to be kept in mind whether a protest or movement is in the country’s interests and will take the country forward. Everyone has to ensure that movements are not misused and that forces working against the country do not enter them,” Ambekar said.

In his annual Vijayadashami address last month, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat stressed that agitations do not bring about change; and solutions to problems often come from within society. He also cautioned that there were forces in the West that wanted India derailed from its path of becoming a developed nation.

“A storm has swept in from the West, driven by a demonic resolve to destroy and devastate all that is decent, auspicious, and rooted in cultural and human values, both in Bharat and across the world. Even the so-called developed nations across the world are afflicted by this storm and find themselves helpless before it...” he said.

The ongoing protests are part of a longer string of events that have mounted pressure on Kumar. The developments follow an Indian Express investigation that said election commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded written dissents and objections at least 14 times between November 2025 and August 2026 and even wrote to the cabinet secretary. It also alleged that election officials found their access to the ECI software curtailed by the central IT team. ECI said differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberation and that all its digital platforms operated under strict data security protocols.

Last month, thousands of people have hit the streets, braving Metro closures, internet shutdown, prohibitory orders and 40,000 security personnel who turned the Capital into a virtual fortress and sparked controversy by dragging, manhandling and detaining many agitators. While the Opposition is seeking the removal of Kumar and scrapping the controversial special intensive revision, the BJP blames them for trying to destabilise constitutional bodies to deflect attention from their own political and electoral failures.