The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan has lifted the ban on government employees taking part in activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, The Hindu reported on Saturday.

The state government decided to remove the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from a list of 17 organisations with which public servants could not be associated. The ban on the Hindutva organisation, considered the ideological parent of the ruling BJP, had been in place in the state since 1972.

On July 9, the Union government removed a 58-year-old ban on central government employees being members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Earlier, several state governments – including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh – had also lifted the bar on public servants being members of the organisation, according to PTI.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been banned three times since Independence – after the assassination of MK Gandhi, during the Emergency from 1975 to 1977 and after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. Critics say it promotes Hindu supremacy and intolerance of minorities.

The Sangh was placed on the list of organisations government officials could not be associated with in November 1966. The Hindutva organisation, commenting on the lifting of the ban last month, said that the Congress government in 1966 had imposed the prohibition on account of its “political interests”.

Also read: Allowing bureaucrats to join the RSS marks the final burial of India’s ‘steel frame’: Harsh Mander