The state-run Travancore Devaswom Board, which governs a large number of temples in southern Kerala, has reaffirmed its ban on RSS activities on shrine premises while spelling out that even the use of banners and loudspeakers by outsiders is prohibited.

The order comes five months after the first such circular in May, which banned RSS activities merely in general terms and was being flouted at many Board-run temples.

The RSS has been conducting shakhas (mass drills) — and allegedly martial arts training at night — on temple premises.

The latest order bans these as well as any use of loudspeakers by anyone other than temple managements to ensure that the premises are used only for religious purposes. No third-party publicity material such as banners and hoardings will be allowed at temples, the circular says.

The priests at each temple have been instructed to inform the authorities if there’s any violation.

The BJP has slammed the order. “If they try to enforce any ban we will come out in full strength and ensure that activities of the RSS are held everywhere,” state BJP president K. Surendran said.

“(Jawaharlal) Nehru and Indira Gandhi could not ban our activities. (Kerala chief minister) Pinarayi Vijayan too will fail.”

Surendran added: “This is only a political stunt to energise extremist organisations. This is not going to work since the RSS is an organisation that functions under the law and doesn’t conduct any arms training. No one can stop us from continuing the activities.”

He demanded that the government, instead, stop the activities of the cadres of the banned Muslim Right-wing outfit, the Popular Front of India.

“Instead of going after the RSS, they should rein in the activities of extremist organisations like the PFI, whose cadres are still active even after being banned. Pinarayi Vijayan’s police should go after them,” Surendran said.

The RSS has a significant presence in Kerala although the state has consistently rejected its political arm, the BJP, which has never won a Lok Sabha seat from Kerala.

The BJP has so far won just one Assembly seat in Kerala, with former Union minister O. Rajagopal winning from Nemom, Thiruvananthapuram, in 2016. But the party lost the seat to the CPM in 2021.