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New Delhi: Two days after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat arrived on American soil, a group calling itself ‘RSS Friends’ has registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent of the RSS, a filing under the US’s Foreign Agents Registration Act shows.

The registration identifies the RSS, with its headquarters in New Delhi as the group’s “foreign principal”. The ‘registrant’, RSS Friends gave an address in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, and said its proposed work would primarily involve “informational, educational, public-relations, and community-engagement” activities.

The Wire using a data set that maps the Sangh and its affiliates globally, had found that while the RSS has refused to register in India, it has silently got most of its global affiliates to do so. That means that while RSS affiliates have subjected themselves to the laws of many jurisdictions here and abroad, their parent body refuses to do so in India. There has been no explanation for why its standards for registration differ across national boundaries and organisations.

The group says it may communicate with journalists, researchers, academic and policy institutions,........

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