Adopt Netaji's inclusive ideals if you want to pay tribute: Grand nephew Chandra Kumar Bose to RSS

Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grand nephew Chandra Kumar Bose has urged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to adopt the secular and inclusive ideals of Netaji if the organisation is serious about paying tribute to the freedom fighter. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be in Kolkata for a five-day visit during which he will be part of an event ‘Netaji Loho Pronam’ where he will pay tribute to Netaji on his birth anniversary on January 23.

Bose said that the secular ethic of India is currently under the threat of disintegrating, and the only way to stop it from happening is to follow his ideology. “If Bhagwat is trying to implement the concept of Bharatiya that Netaji espoused, where he never discriminated between people on the basis of religion, caste, creed or gender, then that would be a befitting tribute, and I would appreciate him. Just a garland and some praise is of no use,” Bose said.

Also Read | Selfish people should stay away from RSS: Mohan Bhagwat

“Bhagwat must declare that the RSS follows the principle of inclusive secular ideology, and that it will not harbour any communal politics,” Bose added.

Bhagwat’s visit to Kolkata and his scheduled address at the Netaji event has drawn sharp criticism from the ruling Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M), too. Bose, who was a vice-president in the BJP earlier, said he had resigned from the post during the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests.

He adds that successive governments have done little to honour Netaji’s legacy, and he appreciates that the BJP government has built a museum in Netaji’s honour at the Red Fort and unveiled a statue of Netaji at India Gate. “Today, Netaji’s ideals are extremely important, and the real tribute to him will be to implement his ideology: the belief in the concept of India as a sovereign, secular, and democratic country. He also believed that politics should not be mixed with religion,” Bose said.