{"id":41662,"date":"2024-07-23T11:08:47","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T05:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=41662"},"modified":"2025-04-30T22:56:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T17:26:03","slug":"govt-servants-and-rss-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/govt-servants-and-rss-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt Servants and RSS Activities: What Rules Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in the News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Removal of Restrictions on RSS Activities for Government Employees<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Historical Context<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Rule 5 of Conduct Rules<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Implications of the DoPT\u2019s Circular<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why in the News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Following a directive from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) earlier this month, employees can now engage in activities of the RSS without facing disciplinary action under the applicable conduct rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Removal of Restrictions on RSS Activities for Government Employees<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Centre has decided to remove the prohibition on government officials participating in activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).\n<ul>\n<li>This restriction has been in place for almost six decades.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Following a directive issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) earlier this month, <strong>employees can now engage in RSS activities without facing disciplinary action under the applicable conduct rules<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Purpose<\/strong>: The directive reviewed and removed mentions of the RSS from Official Memorandums dated November 30, 1966, July 25, 1970, and October 28, 1980.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Historical Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Previous Circulars:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1966 Circular<\/strong>: Issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, it prohibited government servants from participating in RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami activities, citing Rule 5 of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1970 Circular<\/strong>: Reiterated the 1966 directive and stressed disciplinary action against violators.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1980 Circular<\/strong>: Emphasized the need for secularism among government servants and reiterated previous orders against communal organizations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The RSS has always maintained that it is a non-political, cultural organization, unaffected by such restrictions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Rule 5 of Conduct Rules<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964<\/strong>: Prohibits government servants from associating with political parties or organizations involved in politics.<\/li>\n<li><strong>All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968<\/strong>: Similar to the 1964 Rules, applicable to IAS, IPS, and Indian Forest Service officers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prior to 1966:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Before the 1964 and 1968 Rules, the Government Servants&#8217; Conduct Rules, 1949, prohibited political activities by government employees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Violations and Consequences:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Violations of Rule 5 could lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal.<\/li>\n<li>Determining political nature or association with the RSS was challenging due to its informal membership system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Implications of the DoPT\u2019s Circular<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The new directive implies that the RSS is not considered a political organization, allowing government employees to participate in its activities without violating conduct rules.<\/li>\n<li>However, the <strong>Jamaat-e-Islam<\/strong>i remains classified as a political organization.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Applicability to State Government Employees:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The July 9 circular applies only to central government employees.<\/li>\n<li>State governments have their own conduct rules, and their stance on RSS participation varies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The removal of the restriction on participating in RSS activities marks a significant change in the government&#8217;s approach to its conduct rules, reflecting a shift in policy after several decades.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1. What is the role of DoPT?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>DoPT acts as the formulator of policy and the watch-dog of the Government ensuring that certain accepted standards and norms as laid down by it are followed by all Ministries\/Departments in the recruitment regulation of service conditions posting\/transfers and deputation of personnel as well as other issues.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2. When was RSS established?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a doctor in the city of Nagpur.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-law\/govt-servants-and-rss-activities-what-rules-say-9469494\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Government servants and RSS activities: what official Rules say<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Centre has removed the prohibition on government officials participating in activities of the RSS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}