Former Secy E.A.S. Sarma Urges CBDT and ED To Probe RSS's Alleged Lobbying In US Via Firm
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New Delhi: Former Secretary to the Government of India, E.A.S. Sarma has written to the Union revenue secretary Arvind Shrivastava and asked whether the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) should investigate how the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) allegedly engaged a US lobbying firm by paying $330,000 and whether the funds received by the organisation should be liable to domestic taxes.
In his letter, Sarma referred to a public disclosure made by a US lobbying firm, Squire Patton Boggs to the US Senate, which said RSS has engaged it to lobby with US public functionaries. He also referred to news reports that said that the lobbying firm was paid by another lobbying firm, on behalf of the RSS $330,000 this year.
Sarma said that it is "surprising" that RSS which is not registered in India and is funded exclusively by donations or "Guru Dakshina" made by its members should be in a position to pay such a sum in the US.
"When RSS is not registered in India, how has it paid dollars in its name to a US lobbying firm? Is RSS registered under some law in the USA? If the so-called "Guru Dakshina" is the exclusive source of funds for RSS, is it appropriate for that organisation to divert a portion of such Guru Dakshina funds to a foreign lobbying firm?" Sarma asked in his letter.
"According to the Sanatana Dharma definition, "Guru dakshina refers to the traditional offering or fee given by a student to a guru in gratitude for the knowledge received" (https://www.vedadhara.com/guru-dakshina). Are those "students" who have funded RSS by giving it Guru Dakshina offerings, aware that a portion of the contributions made by them in gratitude to their RSS Masters has been diverted to a foreign firm for lobbying in the USA?" he further asked.
Sarma said in his letter that in the past, the Income Tax tribunals, while adjudicating the liability of tax on RSS's funds had appreciated "the true spirit of gratitude that underlies the idea of a Guru Dakshina" and granted tax exemption to funds collected by RSS.
"However, the very character of such funds undergoes a paradigm change when the Guru' diverts a portion of those funds to pay a foreign firm for lobbying with a foreign government, if one can take the liberty of interpreting 'lobbying' as 'educating' the foreign public functionaries," he wrote.
"Should not the CBDT then ask RSS to provide answers to the above four questions, especially as to how RSS has found a mention in the lobbying firm's disclosure to the US Senate, whether RSS is registered as such in the US and whether RSS has made a disclosure to CBDT of the existence of its branch operating in the US, how it has been able to transfer its Guru Dakshina funds to the lobbying firm in the US and whether such fund transfer has taken place through a process legally valid from the point of view of Indian regulatory authorities,” Sarma said in the letter.
The RSS’ move to allegedly hire Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) that is also on the payroll of the government of Pakistan, has ignited a major political controversy in India and raised questions of its financial transparency.
US-based news outlet Prism has reported that according to lobbying disclosures filed with the US government, the firm Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) was paid $330,000 during the first three quarters of 2025 to represent the RSS’s interests before the US Senate and House of Representatives.
A separate report in the New York Times detailed how a recent multi-million dollar lobbying blitz by Pakistan, which included SPB, coincided with a significant policy shift in its favour from the Donald Trump administration, including a tariff reduction from 29% to 19%. During the same period, the US increased tariffs on India to 50%.
After the Prism’s investigation was published, RSS’s Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar denied that the RSS had engaged any lobbying firm.
“Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh works in Bharat and has not engaged any lobbying firm in United States of America,” Ambekar posted on X.
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